Stupid Little Devil
by selenehekate
Summary: Avery is powerful. So powerful that Dumbledore fears for her safety and the safety of those around her, forcing the young girl to transfer to Hogwarts where Harry is currently undergoing his fourth year... Just how much influence does one person have?
1. Prologue

Albus Dumbledore was confused. He knew there were witches and wizards in countries other than England; he wasn't stupid. But why was there such a powerful magical aura emanating from Los Angeles? What was going on?

Severus Snape was scared. It wasn't that he was afraid of some American war brewing, or Voldemort's supporters rising up again. No he was afraid because Dumbledore was confused. This was madness; Albus Dumbledore was never confused, just like when Voldemort was alive, he never stood up and spontaneously started singing Christmas carols.

Well, except for that one time he got drunk...

Professor Dumbledore was currently pacing back and forth around his office as Severus and Minerva McGonagall looked on, both of them feeling slightly annoyed. "Albus," Minerva said, breaking the silence first. "The children will be back in two days. Shouldn't we be doing something to get ready for them instead of fret about some unknown magical source?"

Albus shook his head. "If I can just pinpoint it, figure out what it is exactly..."

"And you really think a locator spell will help you find it," Severus said dryly, glancing towards the headmaster's desk. Atop it was an enlarged map of the Los Angeles area with Albus's wand spinning over it quickly.

Dumbledore nodded, continuing to walk back and forth. "Yes, Severus. I do." The wand gave a sharp whistle and all three of them hurried over as it began to slow down. "Perfect," Dumbledore whispered. He smiled at Severus. "I told you it would work."

The potions master rolled his eyes but said nothing, focusing instead on the wand that was spinning, spinning... and finally stopping. The three Hogwarts teachers stared for a moment at where the wand was pointing.

Minerva frowned. "A street? Well that's hardly helpful."

Dumbledore rested his hand over Minerva's own. "Patience, my dear." Dumbledore turned back to the map, whispering a quick charm as the map enlarged itself, morphing to show the people that walked around the neighborhood...

"A girl," Minerva breathed, confusion lacing her voice. "But how?"

"All in due time, my dear," Dumbledore said, his eyes never leaving the brown orbs of the teen in front of him as she talked with somebody of little consequence. "As for right now, I think we're going to have a retrieval mission on our hands."

"Do you mean," Severus said, eyebrows raised. "That this girl... you want her here at Hogwarts."

"Yes, I do."

"But why, headmaster," Snape asked with a glare. "Why not just leave her be?"

"Because," Albus said, a frown on his wise old face. "She may be the Ultimate Power the prophecy spoke of."

Minerva's eyes went wide as Severus blinked. No, she couldn't possibly be... All three of them stared down at the young lady, wondering just what was so special about her and knowing that in a few short hours, her life would be forever changed.

* * *

Hey everyone! I've had this idea for awhile now, and I just had to write it all down! I actually came up with the concept from reading a story about LOST in which a bunch of new characters were added. However, I wanted this to stay somewhat canon, so I just added the one. This story takes place during Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, and it will progress basically the same as it had before, but with an extra character...

Any how, I hope that you all liked the prologue! It's a little different from the other chapters; the rest of the story will be from the new girl's point of view. If you did, review. If you didn't, review. And if you really don't care either way... uh, review!

So listen to the above mini-rant and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and then I'll Love it!

Lurve forever,

-Selene


	2. What Was That?

Note: You don't meet Harry and the gang this chapter, but don't fret; without a little set-up and a way to get to know the characters, this story would be pretty pathetic, wouldn't it?

* * *

It was a little after seven when they came. My father had just gotten home from work and my mother was in the kitchen making dinner for my little sister Candi, my boyfriend Tyler, and myself. While Candi was downstairs playing video games, Ty and I preferred to be locked away in my room, without anyone watching us as we...

Danced.

"Ty," I laughed as he came down from a stall. "We can't put that in there! You know we already have a freeze in the beginning."

"It's a hip hop competition piece, Avery," he said, pulling me towards him by my belt loops. "We have to pull out all the stops if we want Friction to win. "

Friction. That was the name of our 'crew' if you will. My best friend Darcy, her boyfriend Anderson, Tyler, and myself were the only four members. We were a quartet, a dance team that always dominated, that practiced for hours on end. We wouldn't ever lose, ever fail, and now that competition season was starting up again, we were beginning to choreograph our pieces.

"Well," I whispered to him, as he leaned in closer to me. "I guess we'll just have to practice nonstop once school starts again, won't we?"

"Whenever I can, you know I will." Tyler Bauer went to some expensive private school; you had to almost audition for a spot at Morning Shots Academy. He was constantly studying, always getting out later then Anderson, Darcy, and myself did. "You might be overly busy too, you know. We _are_ entering sophomore year now."

I sighed. It was true, I was fifteen, going on sixteen in November and here we were, entering our second high school year. Most people would be bummed that school was starting again; I know that I sure as hell was. But Darcy? Not so much. "I can't believe Darcy wants to go back to school so bad."

Tyler shrugged. "What can I say? You know she hasn't seen Anderson all summer because he was in Tallahassee. She's excited to see her boyfriend again."

"And I, meanwhile, will be spending less time with mine," I said, placing my hands on his hips. Tyler was extremely muscular, then again you had to be to succeed as a dance partner. He had blue eyes that popped out against his tan skin and golden-brown shaggy hair. Tyler was tall, almost 6'3, making him a good partner for me, and he was reliable in that he never let me down.

"Well," Tyler said with a small smirk. "Maybe we should make up for lost time then, hmm?" He leaned down, bringing his soft pink lips to my own naturally red ones, kissing me lightly at first before steadily getting harder and more intense.

_Crack!_

He jumped away from me, his eyes growing wide in fear. "What the hell was that?"

I shrugged, laughing a little at his fearful look. "My mom probably just dropped something again. No big." I tried to pull him back into my arms, but he pushed me away.

"No, Avery." He peered out the window, swearing under his breath at whatever he saw before glancing wildly back at me. "Stay here," he said, pulling what looked to be a stick out of his bag as he crept towards my door.

I scoffed. "What, do you think someone broke into my house? And you're going to fight them off with a stick? Wow, we're screwed."

"Avery," he turned to me, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me roughly. "Please, just listen to me for once. Stay here." He kissed my forehead and turned around, opening the door silently and creeping from the room.

The doorbell rang.

I stood there for a second, staring back at my reflection. I've always been rather tall for my age, standing at 5'6 and a half while others were two or three inches shorter. My pure brown hair with side bangs was streaked with black and pink, making me look more like a rock star than a dancer, but Darcy's pale blond hair was streaked with orange and teal, so it wasn't like Friction was unbalanced. I suppose I was pretty (except for my nose; it was definitely bigger than average), though I felt I had better be; after having spent five years with braces, if my smile still looked like it belonged on a troll, I don't know what I would have done.

It took me maybe two seconds to decide what to do, and so, setting my brown eyes firmly on the closed door in front of me, I crept towards it, opening it up silently before I began to shift.

Perhaps I should explain just how normal I am... or rather, not normal. Ever since I was a little girl, I've been able to do things that defy all logic. Actually, they defy all sciences, too...

_I sat in the kitchen coloring, my little six year old self smiling down at my work as my daddy walked in, prepared to start making dinner. I looked up at him, frowning. "Daddy, why are you cooking now?"_

_He ruffled my hair and said, "Because it's dinner time, Avery."_

_"But daddy," I protested, looking up at my father in confusion. "Mommy's going to be late, remember? There's traffic."_

_My father laughed. "What are you talking about, honey? Mom's not going to-" he was cut off by the ring of the telephone. He rolled his eyes and picked it up. "Hello? ... Really? ... Okay, dear. I just... nothing. I'll see you soon." My father turned to me, a strange look in his eye. "How did you know..." he trailed off before understanding lit up his face. "Oh, I get it. You were watching the news, weren't you?"_

Looking back on it now, it seems silly to even consider the possibility of a six year old sitting down to watch the news, but my father is a practical man; he would never believe something extraordinary was happening.

I may have chalked it up to good guessing, but it kept happening over and over again...

_Seven years later, Darcy and I were at a competition about to go on stage with our team, when I got a funny feeling. Grabbing her arm, I turned her around to face me, my eyes wide in fear. "Avery," she said anxiously. "What is it? What's wrong?"_

_I shook my head. "Don't do the pikes, Darce."_

_Her eyes went wide. "But this is a competition," lowering her voice, she glanced around at our team of ten or so girls. "I can't let them all down. Unless... are you having one of your feelings?"_

_I nodded and she gasped. "Listen, do a section of your solo, the judges won't notice, and we'll do fine."_

_Sure enough, we won, while another team's girl slipped on the uneven nook in the stage and broke her leg..._

Anderson, Tyler, and Darcy had learned over time to trust me, that whenever I got one of my feelings they should listen. It was weird enough that I was having premonitions, that I could tell what was going to happen in the world. But now...

A few months ago, things got even more twisted.

I had been sneaking out at night to meet up with Tyler when my dad came downstairs. I thought for sure I was caught, but he just glanced around the room, shrugged, and then went back upstairs. I was shocked... until I looked down.

_I was a shadow._

Holy shit.

Over the past few months, I've managed to keep my new power a secret from everyone, my friends included. As much as I trusted the members of Friction, I didn't know _what_ they would think if I suddenly started displaying bizarre powers. As out of character as it was for me, I was a little afraid. What would they think? More importantly, what was happening to me? Was I dying?

And what would I do if someone found out?

So when Ty told me to stay in my room, I defied him, watching as a shadow from the staircase as my mother answered the door, Tyler standing next to her with that stick out. There, standing on my porch were three people: an old man whose grey beard was long and thick, an older woman with her dark hair wrapped tightly into a bun, and a man my father's age with greasy black hair.

And all of them were wearing slick-looking bathrobes.

Right, okay, someone call the mental institution.

Grey-beard smiled at my boyfriend. "You can put your wand away now. We won't hurt you."

Wand?

Tyler looked at him with raised eyebrows. "I think not," he said, holding the stick up even higher. And then it hit me. The stick was a wand. Holy crap. My boyfriend had a freaking wand, and the old dude knew what it was! How was that possible?

My mother cocked her head in confusion. "What's going on here?"

"I apologize for the intrusion, ma'am," grey-beard said with a polite smile. "But may we come in? We have some important matters to discuss with you about your daughter... Avery Nouvelli, is it?"

My mother relaxed slightly. She was an optimistic person and always liked to see the best in people. It was sort of naive, but she thought humanity had enough problems without adding paranoia to the mix. "Of course; why don't you come in?" The three people made a move as if to enter my house, but Tyler stopped them.

"Not so fast," he spat. "Show me your forearm."

"You idiot," greasy-guy said. "You-Know-Who is gone. There is no need for this nonsense." Wow, wasn't he nice.

"Now, now, Severus," grey-beard said, a twinkle in his eye as he rolled up the sleeve of his bathrobe. "You can't get mad at the boy for being overly cautious. Voldemort's supporters are still around, you know." A shudder went through the newcomers and Tyler, but I'm not sure why.

"There," grey-beard said, showing his forearm as the woman next to him did the same. "Although I have to say it would be pointless for Severus to show you his arm, as the mark is indeed there." Tyler pointed the stick, er... wand at the younger guy until grey-beard said, "He was our spy."

Looking deflated, Tyler stepped aside. "Fine," he snapped. "Come in." The three newcomers walked into our living room, sitting on our white leather couch with my mother and boyfriend across from them. "What's your name again," Tyler asked the old man.

"Oh, how rude of me. We haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? My name is Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster at Hogwarts." Tyler gasped, his hand coming up to cover his mouth. Dumbledore ignored him, though. "This is Minerva McGonagall who teaches Transfiguration and Severus Snape, the potions master." Potions? Was he in cosmetics or something?

If my mother thought it was weird that he was talking of potions, she didn't show it. Instead, she cocked her head to the side. "You said this has something to do with my daughter. Should I go get her?"

"No!" Tyler jumped up, looking frantically back and forth between my mother and the Brits with weird names. "You can't. You won't take her!"

What the hell were they talking about? It wasn't in my nature to just sit around doing nothing, I had to act, to figure out what was going on. Perhaps that was my Achilles heel, if you will. I was a little too headstrong, and never thought things through before I acted. This is why I didn't think before I shifted again, changing back from shadow to girl as I made myself visible. "Take me where?"

All five of them jumped at the sound of my voice, Tyler standing and hurrying towards me. "Avery, what are you doing? I told you to stay in your room."

"What are you, my dad," I scoffed. "What the hell is going on?"

Dumbledore stood up, strolling closer to me. "You are Avery Nouvelli, aren't you?" I gave him the once over, suspicious about his motives. Just because I wanted to be informed, that didn't make me an idiot. Having this old man come into my house, knowing who I was... it was strange.

And not in a good way.

"Why do you want to know," I asked, setting my jaw.

"Bloody hell!" The man with black hair (Severus, if I recalled) exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Albus, she can't possibly be the one from the prophecy, the one with the ultimate power! And even if she were, I don't think we'd have to worry about the Dark Lord taking her; she would annoy him to death in two seconds!"

Gee, thanks.

I blinked. "The dark lord? Prophecy? Are you guys on crack?"

"I wish," Tyler snarled, glaring at them.

Dumbledore sighed. "Perhaps it would be best if you sat down, Miss Nouvelli. It seems we have a lot to talk about."

* * *

A half hour later found me seated on our white leather couch, Tyler sitting on one side with his arm wrapped around my waist, and my confused mother on my other side. Someone had finally thought it would be a good idea to call my father down, and so he stood by the door, a contemplative look on his normally stern face. My parents seemed deeply concerned by what our guests were telling us.

I was too busy laughing my ass off.

I snorted. "Please," I said, flipping the hair out of my eyes. "You seriously want me to believe that I'm a witch with growing magical powers that, until now, were too weak for anyone to detect. And you wanted to come over here and offer me a place at your school for my protection? Give me a break!"

"And I'm not going to allow it," Ty said, keeping his firm gaze locked on Dumbledore's. "Do you really think I'm going to let you to take my girlfriend over to where the war began? To where You-Know-Who's supporters still live? Are you nuts? Even _I_ could sense her magic."

"I have found a way we can hide it," Dumbledore explained gently. "A charm. It's a complex bit of magic, but we should be able to place it upon her with little difficulty. We shall say she's a transfer student from your school, Morning Shots I believe it is?" Tyler stiffened at the mention of his Academy. "No one would suspect anything."

"What does his private school have to do with anything?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

Snape snorted. Asshole. "What an open relationship you two have. You both are oh so honest with each other."

"Hey, if I wanted your input I'd have asked for it," I snapped, causing the supposed potions master's jaw to set. Turning back to Ty again, I asked, "What are they talking about? Why are they mentioning Morning Shots?"

Tyler sighed, holding up his wand as he took my hand in his. "I bet you can guess."

I am ashamed to say that it took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about as I looked back and forth between him and the people in front of us, and the stick... and that was when I got it. "You're kidding me. You're a wizard? And you didn't tell me?"

"I wanted to protect you," he protested, looking hurt that I had scorned him.

I laughed once without humor. "Right, because lying to me is definitely a form of protecting me. I am so sure." I scoffed. "I tell you all about the weird stuff in my life-" Well, almost. "And you leave me out to dry like this?"

He shook his head. "That's not it at all! If I had told you what I was, I knew that you'd start to realize what you were, and well..." he trailed off, looking at the three in front of us. "Let's just say that these people are the good guys. And while the wizarding world isn't at war anymore, there are still plenty of bad guys on the loose."

I raised my eyebrows. "There was a war?"

"Please, children," the woman spoke. "Albus, perhaps we should tell them about the prophecy-"

"What prophecy," Tyler interrupted sharply.

"Surely you've heard of it," Severus sneered. "It's only the most famous prophecy in the world."

Ty's eyebrows went up as he chuckled. "What's Harry Potter have to do with Avery?"

"Who?"

But they all ignored me. "Not that one, boy," Snape snapped. What an awful last name he's stuck with. I mean, Snape? Really? Maybe that's why he's so damn bitter. He probably got beat up as a child. "The one about the Ultimate Power."

"Oh _that _one," Ty said, a look of awe coming over his features as he thought it over. Then he made a face. "How is that the most famous prophecy? It came out before I was even born! There is no way I should have first thought of that-"

"Hello? Care to fill me in here?" I was starting to get pissed; no one likes being left in the dark, least of all me.

"The prophecy was made in the seventies," Dumbledore explained. "It left the world perplexed for years. Many have begun to believe it would never come true."

"It stated that there would be a child with ultimate power. That this child would be able to do anything ever imagined," Ty continued. "Many kids were kidnaped and killed because they were feared to have this power, and as of right now, it still hasn't come true..."

"But we think that you, Avery are the one it talks about," Dumbledore said, peering down at me knowingly. "We already know that you have extraordinary abilities that have grown in the past year. We think you are the Ultimate Power."

"Oh my," my mother whispered.

I was too stunned to move. Ultimate Power? Was that why I could turn shadow? Was that why I could see the future? Was all of this really possible? Sarcasm got the best of me. I made a face. "Ultimate power? Isn't that a little cliched? It sounds like something out of a bad comic book."

Tyler rolled his eyes and spoke up again. "That's the real reason you want to take her away, isn't it," he accused. "You're worried that the power will attract Death Eaters."

Dumbledore nodded. "I am. If you're smart, my boy, you'll let her come with us."

I was thoroughly confused, despite the four of them having taken what they probably considered to be great pains to explain everything to me. Ty looked at me, biting his lip with an aggrieved expression on his handsome face. After a moment, he whispered, "I think you should go, Avery."

My mouth dropped open. "What? Are you insane? You're going to allow me to be shipped off to an English boarding school like some Mary Sue?"

"You're muggle born," he said, not quite meeting my gaze. "You're American, and you have so much power... this will put you out of danger."

"But it will also put in the line of fire for bad jokes and mocking of my American ways," I pointed out. "I will automatically be a social outcast because people view Americans as idiots that think too highly of themselves." This was true; why else would our country constantly be at war?

"It will also put your family out of danger." His words froze me cold. My mom and dad were in danger? My little sister Candi might get hurt? My boyfriend sighed. "I don't want you to go Avery, but I do want you to be safe. It may be the only way."

I nodded reluctantly. I didn't want anyone to get hurt on my account; that would kill me inside, and not in a Holden Caulfield way.. But there was one thing that I needed to know... "What about Friction," I asked him. "I can't just quit! Darcy would kill me."

Severus cocked an eyebrow. "Friction?"

But Tyler was already fixing it. "We need her back four times a week for a few hours. Surely that's a small price for you to pay if you get to have her at Hogwarts for the rest of the year."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow in surprise but didn't protest. "That's fine, I'll connect her house to the floo network-"

"Don't bother," Ty interrupted. "Mine's already connected. She'll come through my fireplace."

Minerva stood up then, clapping her hands together and giving us all a smile as my father moved protectively towards my mother. "Well it's all settled then. School begins day after tomorrow, you'll arrive at the train station by floo." Flu? She wanted me to get sick? "I assume you'll want to be the one to take her to get her things?" she asked Ty. He nodded.

"Very well," Dumbledore said, taking over once again. Out of his bathrobe, he pulled a list. "This is what you will need for school. Tyler shall take care of you. Now, we must be off." He shook my hand winking at me as he swept from the room. "It will be a pleasure having you at Hogwarts this year, Miss Nouvelli."

McGonagall also stuck out her hand to me, a tight smile on her lips as if she was unsure whether or not I was to be trusted. "I hope you are in Gryffindor," was all she had to contribute before she strode out the door.

Whatever that meant.

Snape on the other hand just glared down at me in distaste as he exited. Bastard.

The front door closed behind them. There was another sharp _crack_, and then silence. My father muttered an excuse about getting dinner started and left, my mom hot on his heels leaving just Ty and myself behind in awkward silence.

I turned to my boyfriend, the man I had been dating for a year and a half now, who had lied to me about who he was for my own protection and sighed before saying, "So... What's this Diagon Alley place?"

He chuckled in relief, reaching out and pulling me towards him as he wrapped his arms around my waist. "I'm sorry for not telling you before about magic," he muttered into my hair. "I love you."

"I know," I said, though inside I was wondering if the two of us could ever move past this.

* * *

Ta-da! So you finally get to meet Avery... and the wonderful Ty! Next up, Avery... 1) heads to Diagon Alley... 2) by floo of course... 3) where she starts to learn about the magical world... 4) and a certain World Cup and the fiasco that took place there...

A quick note about Avery: she's a very headstrong character and it gets her in trouble a lot. She likes to pretend that everything is just wonderful, and because this is from her point of view, you'll see how she sort of overdramatizes the situation sometimes. That's just her character, though.

So if you liked it, if you hated it, or if you really could care less then RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and then I'll Love it!

Lurve,

-Selene


	3. Diagon Alley

This is the last chapter without any of the normal canon characters. From the next chapter on, its life as usual at Hogwarts...

* * *

"Okay, what's the punch line?"

Tyler chuckled, reaching out with one hand to brush the hair from my eyes. "No punch line, Avery. I'm being serious here."

"You're kidding, right? We're traveling by _fireplace?_ Doesn't that seem a little dangerous?" I stared transfixed at the roaring fire in his house, as he pulled some powder from a flowerpot. It was the day after I'd received the startling your-magical-haha news, and it was currently five in the morning. No joke. Today was the day we were destined to go to Diagon Alley (wherever that was) and pick up my school supplies (whatever those may be). And how were we going to get there, you may ask. By bus? Car? Train?

Nope, by _fire_.

Not the most pleasant way to die...

"Not in the least," Tyler said with a heart-stopping grin. "Trust me, I've done it a thousand times."

"Can't we just walk?" I asked, feeling nervous despite the fact that my boyfriend - and one of my best friends at that - was sure it was okay. Maybe I was still bitter about the fact that he had a double life, but I wasn't too sure I was ready to put my full trust in him again.

He snorted. "Hardly. Diagon Alley is in London."

London. As in London, England.

Super.

I made a face. "You don't have any stores here?"

But he just rolled his eyes. "None that have the school robes Hogwarts requires. And seeing as I actually have a life and I don't care to spend the entire day running all over the world to pick up your various school supplies, it's best to get it all in one place. Come on, Avery. It's not that hard," Tyler coaxed. "It will be simple."

Pride trumped fear; I wouldn't let this oddity turn me weak. Call me stubborn, call me stupid, say whatever you like. But if I was going to be forced to do _magic _I had to immerse myself into this world completely. And so I set my jaw, reaching for the powder in his big hands. "What do I do?" I asked, looking into the depths of the roaring fire as Tyler laughed at my determination.

"You just throw it in the fire," he said, guiding me towards the fireplace. "Then you say in a loud and clear voice _Diagon Alley_ before stepping into the fireplace yourself. It will take you right to the Leaky Cauldron. Wait for me. I'll be right behind you."

I nodded, a queasy feeling building up in the pit of my stomach as I threw the powder into the fire. It immediately turned a bright green color, and I jumped back in surprise before regaining my wits and calling out as clearly as I could, "Diagon Alley!"

I stepped into the fire, surprised by its lack of heat, and was quickly pulled in with the smoke, but not before I could hear my boyfriend shout, "Close your eyes!"

I did, and thank god I had. I could feel the whirling of the fire around me, could sense that I was spinning out of control. I was tempted to open my eyes and start spotting, an old dance trick that was meant to keep dizziness away, but I trusted Tyler, and if he said I was to keep my eyes closed...

That was when the world abruptly stopped spinning, jerking me to a halt and forcing me into taking two dizzy steps as my eyes opened before my equilibrium freaked out on me and I fell forward, falling to the ground and hitting my head.

Smooth.

"Ow," I mumbled, sitting up slowly like I would do after I fell in dance. Nothing was broken as far as I could tell. I was alright, save for my damaged pride. Looking around, I saw I was in a dank bar with tables set up here and there. A few people in multi-colored bathrobes sat around drinking, but the place was mostly empty.

Of course it was pretty early in the morning, even in England time...

The fire blazed green behind me again as I inched out of the way. Tyler stepped out of the fire, a confused look sweeping over his features as he scanned the room before his gaze finally rested on me. He smiled, holding a hand out. "You can stand up, you know."

I took his hand, rolling my eyes at the obvious statement. "And you people _choose_ to travel this way?"

He chuckled in amusement. "Just wait until you see the rest of Diagon Alley."

Oh joy.

* * *

"Wow, I can't believe leprechauns are real."

Here we were standing in Gringotts, the wizarding world's national bank, with a real live magical being taking care of our money. It was amazing, something I'd never thought possible."He's not a leprechaun, Avery. Now would you shut up? You're going to piss him off," Tyler scolded, glaring at me as the little man made the money exchange.

"Well he's definitely not human," I countered, staring at him. He was balding, obviously very old as tuffs of white hair stuck out from his pointy ears. "So what do you think he is then? An elf?"

"Stupid girl," the tiny man snapped at me. "I'm a goblin!"

My brow furrowed. This was completely and totally... wrong. "But... leprechauns are the ones that bring gold to people, shouldn't they run the banks?"

The lepre - uh, goblin handed Tyler my money. "Yes," he said drily. "Go ahead. Try and get some _real _gold from a leprechaun, and please, tell me how you do." With a snort, he bounced away, heading for a new customer.

"C'mon, Avery," Tyler said, grabbing my hand and pulling me back through the large double doors that marked the entrance to Gringotts and the sign that claimed my death if I were to steal. He turned to me. "Could you _try_ to not pick a fight with people you haven't met yet?"

"But aren't leprechauns supposed to be the ones with the cash," I protested. "You know, at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold?"

"No," he said firmly, pulling out the list of things I needed to get for school. "That was all propaganda created by the leprechauns to make them seem like they were worth a damn. They really can't do anything."

I huffed, crossing my arms firmly over my chest. "Well that sucks," I complained. "Why do we celebrate Saint Patrick's day then?"

"So people can get drunk. Now come on, we've got a lot of work to do." We headed off at a faster pace, my black leather purse weighed down with gold. When would these people progress enough to use cash, or better yet a credit card? I don't mean to sound Malibu, but it was a matter of connivence and accessibility. "It looks like Dumbledore has decided to start you in fourth year," Ty said.

"Well what does that mean?"

"Technically, you're a year behind everyone else your age (most fifteen year olds are in fifth year), but seeing as you've never done magic before, you're going to be in some pretty advanced classes." He flashed a grin at me. "Don't worry, it looks like you've got plenty of review sessions - and Care of Magical Creature and Divination for your electives. Well, Divination should be a breeze for you, at least."

"So where are we going now?" I asked, staring in awe at a shop that sold nothing but brooms. Were those with magical talents big on cleaning in the wizarding world? Or did people actually fly them like all the witch stereotypes claimed? Round and round we went, everywhere seeming more amazing then the last place we had been.

"We need to pick up your school uniform, so we'll head over to the local robe shop."

I made a face. "Robes? As in those ugly bathrobe things that the people who barged into my house last night were wearing? I have to get one of those?"

Tyler sighed. "They're not that bad." And yet he never wears one for fun... Great, I was going to have to spend an entire year looking like an escapee from a mental institution while other girl's got cute little uniforms that showed off their legs. And who would I look like?

Hurley from Lost.

* * *

Half an hour later found me being pulled toward our last stop of the day, Ollivander's, to get a wand. Oh joy. I was curious as to the state the shop would be in; after coming across goblins, newt's eyes, and biting books, I didn't think anything could surprise me.

The shop was dank, smelling of dust and mildew while boxes upon boxes were stacked by the door. A lone lamp lit the store, its single light flickering in place as Tyler and I entered the building. The place was seemingly empty; from the looks of it Ollivander's didn't get much business.

"Good morning," a low voice hissed to my right.

I jumped, spinning around to see an old man staring up at me with cunning eyes. He was stooping as he walked, but that didn't stop him from having an intimidating appearance. As sad as it sounds, I wanted to run upon seeing his writhing gaze..

"Hello, Ollivander," Tyler said pleasantly, a warm smile lighting up his face. "Listen, Avery here needs a wand-"

"Of course I do," I said with sarcasm, attempting to regain control of myself. "Why else would I be here?" Tyler rolled his eyes, glancing apologetically at the old man.

Ollivander smiled at me, an amused twinkle lighting up his aged face. "Very well then," he said, beckoning me closer to him with a wrinkled hand. "Let us begin." Apparently, beginning consisted of walking around me in a slow circle, muttering to himself every now and then as he appraised me like a horse on sale at the county fair. Suddenly, Ollivander dove for a black shoebox on one of the shelves. Opening it, he whispered, "Nine inches, Dragon heartstring and maple. Bendy."

Then he handed it to me.

Uh...

I glanced back at Tyler to see him staring at me in amusement. Asshole. I sent him a look of wonder, silently pleading with him to help me. "Just give it a wave," he said, motioning with his right arm as if he were waving an invisible wand.

I took a deep breath, feeling completely and utterly ridiculous but also knowing that if I wanted to leave the store I would have to comply. I gripped the wand tightly, raising it up above my head and gave it a wave... nothing happened.

Well that was anticlimactic.

I was afraid of what this meant. Maybe I wouldn't be able to go to wizard school anymore, instead being forced to live at home and put my friends and family at risk. But Ollivander didn't bat an eye, seizing the wand from me in one smooth motion and instead grabbing another one. "Ten and a half inches, Bowtuckle legs and maple. Sturdy."

I took it from him, once again waving it above my head like a moron, and once again nothing happened. He yanked it out of my hand before I had even completed the motion, staring at me in frustration for half a second before his eyes lit up. "Of course," he muttered. "The most powerful combination..." Opening another box, he handed me the wand. "Ten and a quarter inches. Unicorn hair and oak. Supple."

I didn't understand what he meant by the most powerful combination, but I did realize that the second I gripped the wand, I felt the same familiar tingle I always felt whenever I turned shadow... suddenly inspired, I raised it up over my head and brought it down...

Third time's a charm, right?

Out from the tip of the wand came red and green sparks, lighting up the room as they shimmered before slowly disappearing. Tyler and Ollivander applauded me as I stared dumbfounded at the wand. My wand. "Well, well," Ollivander said, giving me an amused grin. "It looks like we've got a perfect fit, doesn't it?"

He took the wand from me, putting it back in the box. Tyler came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist as he whispered in my ear, ignoring the fact that I was still staring in surprise at my hand. "You did great," he said.

I turned to look at him, my eyes wide with shock. "Did I do that?"

* * *

"Congratulations, Avery! Your first wand. You're going to love having one, I've already written down a list of spells that you may find helpful... this is great! What do you say we go celebrate? Get an ice cream or something, on me." We were strolling idly down the street in Diagon Alley, hand in hand. I was still feeling a little annoyed with the fact that he had a secret life, and I had to force myself not to pull away from him.

I smirked at Ty. "Ice cream? What are we five? I thought the whole purpose of getting up early was so we could get back early."

"It's my last full day with you, love." His smile turned wistful now, and it sent my pulse racing and my hand squirming at the same time. "I just want to spend time with you." We stopped walking, his hand gently brushing the hair back from my face, his own blue eyes boring into my brown ones like he never wanted to look away. The intensity of his stare drew me closer. Even if I had wanted to back away from this liar, I couldn't have for his gaze was too powerful as he leaned down to kiss me...

"-fiasco at the World Cup! I can't believe it!"

Tyler pulled away, startling me as he jerked backwards. "Ty?" I questioned, following him with my eyes as he hurried after the two teenage girls that had just walked past us. "What are you doing?"

"Excuse me," he said, grabbing the one of the two twins by the arm. "Can I ask you something?"

The girls giggled to each other, looking up at Tyler in interest. "But you're American," one of them said. "What's an American doing in England?"

"Is that really any of your business," I snapped, heading over to my lover. Tyler rolled his eyes at me as the twin girls exchanged nervous glances. They had dark hair with matching dark eyes that were currently gazing at me like I was a criminal on the run from the law.

I crossed my arms over my chest as Ty started speaking again. "Listen," he said, smiling in an unthreatening way. It didn't quite reach his eyes though, worry taking hold there instead. "You were just talking about the World Cup, right? You said something happened there?"

One of the girls raised her eyebrows. "I thought you were American, not ignorant."

"Padma dear, all Americans _are_ ignorant, remember," one of the sisters said with a giggle.

This proved my previous point: I was going to be viewed as an idiot no matter what because I lacked an accent.

Awesome.

"And all Brits are going to feel my wrath if you don't answer my boyfriend's question, _dear_," I said, glaring down at them while maintaining my I-just-one-upped-you smirk.

The girl named Padma held up her hands. "We were just talking about what had happened at the Cup over the weekend. You know, how the Death Eaters invaded-"

"They what," Tyler said his eyes widening in alarm.

"They invaded," the other twin continued, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "Ran after the muggles and sent the Dark Mark into the sky. Pity too, Ireland won and all..."

"So are they back," Tyler asked. His voice was tense, as if the fate of the world rested on the answer of his question. I, on the other hand understood all of none of this conversation, as I failed to know what a Death Eater or the Cup was.

The girls shrugged, answering as one. "Nobody knows." One of the twins, the one who had said all Americans were ignorant (asshole), continued. "The Ministry has had a field day, running around for two days straight as they tried to round up those involved."

Her sister nodded. "Parvati is right, everyone is pretty shaken up about this. They don't know what it means for muggle-borns, or half-bloods even."

Tyler nodded, grabbing my hand in a death grip as he began to pull me back the way we had come, towards the Leaky Cauldron. "Thank you so much for filling me in. Have a nice day." With that, he spun around, dragging me after him as we booked it back toward the pub.

I shook my hand from his. "What," I said with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood. "Don't tell me you're all grown up now with no time for ice cream."

"We have to go Avery," he said. Tyler looked down at me, and I was shocked to see his eyes wide in terror. "Those people, the ones that Dumbledore was afraid might come after you, they're on the loose."

Oh.

Swell.

* * *

An hour later I was sitting in Ty's living room, a cup of coffee in one hand as I gripped the arm of the red velvet chair as tightly as I could with the other. My boyfriend sat across from me in a matching red easy chair. His normally cozy room seemed to be dark today, the shadows from the roaring fire shaking ominously on the wall as the air pulsated with the ramifications of what he'd just divulged to me.

"So this Voldemort dude," I rolled my eyes as Tyler winced. I still couldn't understand how he was afraid of speaking the name. "Is dead, but people are still afraid of him? How does that work?"

Tyler shook his head. "It's yet to be proven that You-Know-Who has actually died. For all we know, he might be a snake in the grass, waiting for a moment of weakness before he attacks." He leaned forward, capturing my smaller hand in his own as if we were about to partner for the tango again. "For all we know, he could be looking for you this instant."

I bit my lip, staring deep into Ty's blue orbs. I knew what I had to do; there was no doubt in my mind. The decision that had been slowly growing more palpable all day was now clear. If this evil guy may still be alive, and if he may come after me to try and kill me... I had to keep my friends safe, my family safe. And if I couldn't count on Ty to tell me the truth about everything, about himself, without being prompted...Taking a deep breath, I finally told Ty what had been gnawing at my core since the minute he told me I may be in danger.

"Ty," I said slowly. "I think we should break up."

He blinked for a second, drawing his own hand away from mine as he looked at me with his brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"We should stop seeing each other," I elaborated in a dry manner. "Surely you've heard that before."

He stood up, setting his cup of coffee down on the table as he strode over to the fireplace, probably hoping to find the answer to the mysteries of women inside the flames. "Why," he finally asked, keeping his back to me all the while.

"I'll hardly see you," I lied, not wanting to tell him that the real reason I wanted to be single was because I didn't trust him, and that I didn't want to give the Death Eaters a hostage in case they did come after me. "I mean, I know that I'll still see you, Anderson, and Darcy at Friction practice, but... I don't think either of us should have our hands tied."

He spun around glaring at me with an intensity that I only see when we dance. "What if I like having my hands tied?" He ran a hand through his shaggy golden brown hair. "I love you, Avery. Dammit, I don't mind being away from you; I'll still get to see you!"

"But not enough," I said firmly, feeling horrible about lying but knowing that I would feel worse if I didn't do everything I could for his safety. "It's just for the school year, Ty. You can get through it."

"No, I can't."

"Well, you're going to have to, because I _want_ to be single," I snapped, losing my patience. "Do you think I like knowing about your double life? About the fact that you're a wizard, and you didn't even _tell me?_ Me. Your girlfriend." I shook my head, looking away. "I can't deal with that, Ty."

I saw the hurt enter his eyes as he looked up at me. "Oh," he said at last. I forced back the apology that was making its way up my throat. I had to protect him, I had to save him, even if I didn't understand what I was saving him from. "Well, that's different then." He reached into his pocket, pulling from the depths a folded piece of paper. "Here is the list of spells I made you. You might want to use the shrinking one to help you pack tonight. It's the last day before term; no one will care about the underage magic law."

I bit my lip, my eyes following his every movement in concern. I hated seeing him like this, seeing him so... hurt. "Ty-" I tried before he cut me off.

"Just go, Avery," he said, walking out of the room as he causally tossed behind his parting words. "I'll see you Wednesday." And so I watched my lover turn his back on me, knowing that it was my fault that I had to scorn him this way.

Why couldn't I have been a normal girl?

* * *

At ten to eleven the next morning, my sister Candi, my parents, and I stood in front of Tyler's fireplace, looking at the burning embers of the fire I would have to step into. "I can't believe you won't burn yourself," Candi said, shaking her head in disbelief. "There's no way."

I smiled down at my little sister, always the studious one, the athletic one with her powerful legs that kicked ass in track. "It works; trust me." I turned to face my mom and dad. This was the hard part. Leaving my family... "I guess I'll be seeing you in a few weeks."

My mom hugged me, squeezing me long and hard as a tear slipped out of the corner of her eyes. "Send me the address of the school the minute you get there. You have to write me everyday."

"I promise."

My dad hugged my next, grinning down at me. "Use good judgement, Avery."

I rolled my eyes. "I will," I said, sticking out my tongue at him. "You'll have to TiVo Lost and Survivor for me, pops. I don't know if it's on in England." My father laughed as I took the powder from the flowerpot on the fireplace. I looked around once more at my family, giving them a sly grin. Tyler's parents had given us privacy for the last goodbye before school began.

As for Ty himself... he was avoiding me.

Damn.

Knowing that my now ex-boyfriend wasn't going to come and see me off, I sadly threw the powder into the fireplace, gripping my trunk (stupid thing, why can't the English use suitcases like normal people?) tightly in one hand and my bag in the other as the fire turned green, I said as clearly as I could, "Hogwarts."

Then I stepped into the fire, turning around one last time to give my astonished family a final smile as the fire whisked me off to my new school.

* * *

So here's the second chapter! Sorry I've been missing for a while, but competition was yesterday, and I've been training six hours a day or so... in addition to school.

Yay me.

But we qualified for Nationals, so it's all good, lol! Anyway, celebrate with me as well and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and then I'll Love it!

Lurve,

-Selene


	4. Welcome to Hogwarts

The first thing I realized as I stepped from the fireplace was that I had managed to land on my feet, which was good because I wasn't too keen on making an ass out of myself in my first few moments at Hogwarts.

As I moved my bags from the fireplace, a kind voice met my ears. "Welcome to Hogwarts, Miss Nouvelli." I raised my head, bringing my eyes up from the stone floor to the twinkling eyes of the old man from two days ago. "I hope you had a pleasant journey."

I smirked in mock amusement. "Yeah, because traveling via fireplace is oh so comfortable." Dumbledore's eyebrows rose, but he said nothing, stepping back to allow me room to view my surroundings.

I was in an office; that much was obvious. The dimly lit room was filled with odd little nick-knacks here and there. A bowl filled with silver liquid. A crimson bird cawing on its perch. An old black hat sitting on the desk that Dumbledore leaned against.

Also in the room were people. Shocking, I know. In addition to the headmaster, the woman from two days ago (McGonagall, right?) was there, as was the greasy-haired man. A plump woman with hair graying from age and dirt on her robe stood next to a short old man who reminded me of a circus midget.

I stopped looking around, seeing nothing of interest to me. I turned back towards Dumbledore. "I'm not the only one here, am I?"

The headmaster chuckled, strolling over to me as he did so. "Certainly not. The other students will arrive in a few hours. Just enough time for you to settle in." He held out his hand. "Perhaps it's time for me to formally introduce myself. My name is Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster here at Hogwarts."

I pursued my lips, hating that he felt the need to state the obvious. "Didn't you tell me that last time?" I said, not taking the hand he offered me. My guard was up; I didn't know anything about these people, why should I trust them?

Dumbledore lowered his hand, sighing as he did so. "Well, yes. I just thought it might be a good conversation opener... Never mind." He gestured towards McGonagall. "You already know your transfiguration teacher, Professor Minerva McGonagall." The women smiled at me, her thin lips leaving the impression that she didn't like me very much.

Great, I'd been here for two minutes and already I was on some teacher's hit list.

"And your potions teacher," Dumbledore continued. "Professor Severus Snape." Snape glared at me, staring as if I was something nasty that he had found in his room. Perhaps his disdain for me grew from our abrupt meeting yesterday, or maybe he just didn't like Americans with attitudes and multi-colored hair. One thing was for sure: he was obviously one of those teachers that would have done horribly with Kindergartners

"This," Dumbledore said, continuing the people-tour. "Is Professor Filius Flitwick, the Charms teacher." He pointed to the midget man who nodded warmly in my direction. "And this is Professor Pomona Sprout, the Herbology teacher." The plump women smiled in my direction, her eyes growing softer.

I nodded. "Hey."

Dumbledore paused for a moment, perhaps waiting for me to express how starstruck I was over seeing the teachers. "Well," he continued awkwardly. "Now that you know everybody, we should sort you."

My eyebrows rose. They should _what_? "Excuse me?"

McGonagall took over, grabbing the old hat off the desk and carrying it over to me. "The sorting only takes place once. What house you're put in will determine where you live, who you spend time with, who you'll attend classes with... it will tell us a lot about you."

"So no pressure," I said snidely.

McGonagall continued as if she hadn't heard me. "I am the Head of Gryffindor, Professor Sprout is the Head of Hufflepuff, Professor Flitwick for Ravenclaw, and Professor Snape is the Head for Slytherin."

"So what's the hat for," I asked, pointing to the object in her hands.

"This," she said, lifting it up as if it were a holy object. "Is what will determine your placement."

"An old hat? What good does _that_ - Hey!" She jammed the old thing on my eyes as I protested, using surprising strength to keep it on me as I struggled. Great, now I'd get lice or something. Lovely. I stopped struggling, hoping that she would remove her hands so I could take the stupid thing off. She didn't.

"Stop fighting this, Miss Nouvelli. It will go a lot faster if you cooperate," a voice said.

I had to fight back a scream as the voice began to mysteriously whisper in my ear. My eyes grew wide, and I was thankful that the hat was covering them. I didn't want to give dear old Severus Snape an excuse to mock me.

"Don't worry, I'm just an armless old hat." The hat laughed at its joke. "Get it? Armless? I'm also harmless..." I said nothing, and I swear I could feel the hat sigh. "You'd think with all the free time I have, I would have some better jokes by now," it complained.

"Now let's see," it said. "Where to put you? You're certainly bright enough for Ravenclaw, but you're too lazy to actually use your brains. Perhaps Hufflepuff would be best... oh Merlin no. You're too sarcastic, they would be crying by the end of the night. Slytherin is the best match for you by far, if only you weren't a muggle-born American... two things that mark you for death in their book." A shudder passed through me. I didn't understand anything... except that. "Well, I guess that leaves GRYFFINDOR!"

My ears were ringing as McGonagall pulled the hat off of me. "Ow," I moaned shaking my head in an attempt to rid the sound from my ears. "Did it have to be that loud?"

In response, McGonagall held her hand out to me. "Congratulations Miss Nouvelli. Welcome to Gryffindor."

I looked at her for a moment, trying to regain my bearings after having my head screamed off by a stupid hat. "Is that supposed to be a good thing?"

I heard a snort from over my shoulder, and I turned to see Snape standing there with a scowl on his face, shaking his head back and forth. "I never thought I'd see the day, Minerva that I would feel relieved you have more people in your house than I do in mine, but that day has arrived. I wouldn't want her for anything in the world."

I cocked my head to the side. "Oh look," I said drily. "Kind words from Professor Severus."

He snarled at me. "It's Professor _Snape _you idiot girl. Show some respect."

"Maybe when you earn it."

"Why you rude, little-"

"Calm down, Severus." Dumbledore interrupted. He turned towards me. "Professor McGonagall will show you to your room and help you unpack. Then you will come back here and we will begin discussing your magical tutoring sessions-"

"Why? I can pick it up on my own. Just give me a list of spells, I'll be fine."

"Miss Nouvelli," McGonagall said sharply. "Magic is not something that should be taken lightly. You could get hurt; you need proper training before you even attempt your first spell-"

"A little late for that, isn't it?" I gestured towards my trunk where it lay next to the fireplace. "How else do you think I was able to get all my stuff in there?"

Sprout blinked at me, her mouth opening in awe. "You... you used magic?"

Looking from face to face, I saw her astonishment mirrored by everybody else. With a sigh, I opened my mouth, prepared to reiterate my experience from yesterday as I used a wand for the first time...

_I sat on my bed, the stupid trunk sitting open before me with only half of what I needed in it. How was I supposed to bring everything? I had twenty-five pairs of shoes alone, and if I was going to be gone for an entire year, there was no way I would leave even one of those pairs behind. Not to mention my school stuff, dance stuff, clothes..._

_What the hell was I going to do?_

_With a sigh, I looked at the list in my hand again. Tyler had said that it would be helpful for packing, but truth be told, the thought of using magic scared the crap out of me. What if I did something wrong and blew up my house? Still, it didn't seem as if I had a choice..._

_I clambered to my feet, grabbing my wand from the table next to me. I consulted the list quickly, reading the words Ty had written about the shrinking spell._Gently swish the wand in front of you_, it said. _And then point it at the object you wish to shrink.

_It seemed easy enough, but a test run seemed necessary, just in case. Swishing the wand before pointing it at the clock besides my bed, I said "Reducio." The clock burst into flames. I jumped, startled, before quickly putting out the fire, smothering it with my pillow. Staring at where my clock used to be, I sighed. "I never liked that piece of crap anyway," I muttered._

_I grabbed the paper again and reread what Ty had written. _Gently swish the wand in front of you... _Gently. Okay. This time, I pointed my wand at my pillow seeing as it already had burn marks on it from smothering out my clock. Gently, I swished my wand in front of me. "Reducio," I whispered._

_Instantly, my pillow shrunk down to half it's size. I grinned. Perfect._

"Ta-da," I said, my story coming to a close as the teachers stared at me in shock. "And that was the tale of my magic lessons."

"You set your clock on fire," Flitwick said in horror.

I shrugged. "It was bright yellow and it dinged like a school-bell. It deserved to go."

"Why didn't the American Ministry contact you. You're an underage witch using magic over the summer holidays; that's illegal," Snape snapped at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Obviously you guys are out of touch with your allies across the Atlantic. Maybe you should try talking to them instead of believing them to be ignorant fools," I said pointedly. Snape just scoffed. "Tyler said the last day before break ends, nobody cares about the underage magic law."

Dumbledore frowned. "I'll have to talk with them about that." He stood up. "Until we have a plan of action, we'll have to resort to putting a cloaking spell on your powers." As he spoke, a silver mist shot out of his wand and folded around me. "There," he said as the mist disappeared. "That should do it."

"What now, Albus," McGonagall whispered to the headmaster, coming up to him.

He frowned, turning to me. "Take her to her room, help her enlarge her items once more, and then leave her alone. We'll discuss what to do about her magical education alone." He spoke to me then. "Miss Nouvelli, you'll have about an hour to yourself. After that, one of the professors will be up to help escort you to the Great Hall."

I made a face. "What, do I need a babysitter like I'm five?"

"Yes," Snape said snottily. I rolled my eyes as McGonagall levitated my trunk and began to walk out of the office. I grabbed my bag and followed.

"Oh, and Miss Nouvelli." I turned to face the headmaster again. "Refrain from using any more magic now." I smiled serenely, waiting until after I had left the room before I let that smile drop from my face as a smirk took its place instead.

Like he could control me.

* * *

The long walk to the rooms proceeded to confuse the hell out of me. We passed stone corridor after stone corridor, each hall looking the same as the last. Pictures on the wall began talking to each other, scaring me at first before McGonagall assured me that this was a common occurrence. One time, a suit of armor stood and walked across the hall, and another, the staircase moved.

I was _so_ going to get lost.

After a year and a day, we stopped in front of a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. She peered down at us curiously, as I wondered what the hell we were doing stopped at a picture. "Password?"

"Balderdash," McGonagall said stiffly. The portrait swung open to reveal a doorway. "This is the password, Miss Nouvelli. I do hope you remember it, as it's the only way you will be allowed to enter your rooms." She climbed in through the hole.

"Oh goody," I muttered to myself. "Something else I have to know." I followed after her.

The Gryffindor common room was red and gold in a nutshell. Red couches, red rugs, red walls. There were gold colored tables and tapestries on the stone wall and a roaring fire in a fireplace with gold fixtures on them.

"Come along, Miss Nouvelli." McGonagall pulled me out of my reverie as she strolled up one of the staircases, still levitating my trunk behind her. "This is the girl's staircase, the one across the common room is the boys." I nodded to myself. That should be easy enough to recall.

She stopped in front of a door, clearly marked _Fourth Years_ on it in red. "This is were you will be staying." Pushing open the door, we entered the dorm room and I saw... more red. Great. The dorm had four beds in it, all with red sheets matching the red canopy above. I have to admit, the room seemed cozy enough, despite the whole vampire color scheme.

"Now then," McGonagall said, letting my trunk hit the floor with a loud _thunk_. "Let's start enlarging your items, shall we?"

Red flag. "Whoa there," I said, stepping forward to face her. "Don't even think about it."

She blinked up at me. "I beg your pardon?"

"You are _not_ going to make my stuff big again."

"But," McGonagall stepped forward, a frown overtaking her stern features. "Miss Nouvelli, you will not do this by yourself! I refuse-"

"I'll have one of the other students do it." I gestured to the room we were in. "There are at least three other people here who are capable, aren't there? Besides, if we enlarge them now, where would I put all my stuff?"

I had her there and she knew it. With a huff, she strode toward the door. "Stay here. Someone will be by to get you in an hour. Change into your robes before then." She slammed the door shut behind her before beginning her brisk walk down the stairs.

Ah. Alone at last.

The first thing I did was pull out my iPod. Oh, don't worry. I'm not completely naive, Ty had told me that electronics didn't work on magical grounds. He also told me there was a spell to fix that, making it a grand total of two spells I had ever performed in my life.

I'm on fire.

Of course I had wisely chosen to keep my use of the electronics spell a secret, in case Dumbledore or the uptight McGonagall deemed me spell-happy and took the list and any chances I had of catching up away.

Or worse, my iPod.

The hour passed swiftly as I stretched, listening to everything from the Pussycat Dolls to Metro Station. Both are washed up now, but I still declare that some of their older stuff was fairly decent.

Anyway, when the hour was almost up, I changed into the stupid robe I had bought at Diagon Alley with Ty... Ty. Just thinking about him, about what had happened between us made me sad. Where had all of that trust gone? In the length of two days, I'd gone from madly in love to irrevocably hurt by his omission of magic. What made me even more sorrowful was the knowledge that I would have to see him again in two days...

There was a knock at my door, letting me know that my escort had arrived. "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." Slipping on the black flats I was wearing when I had arrived, I looked at my reflection. I'd used the shrinking spell to make the school skirt... more my style, if you catch my drift. The white button down shirt that went with it was left open to the third button with a heart-shaped silver necklace resting on my chest as my hair flowed down around me. The robes killed the cliched sexy-schoolgirl look, but I couldn't do anything about that.

My escort knocked again and I rolled my eyes, knowing they couldn't see me. "I said I was coming." I opened the door... to reveal none other than Snape.

Oh goody.

"If you talk to me like that again, Miss Nouvelli, you will be in detention until the day you die. Is that clear?" he hissed, glaring down at me as his tall frame blocked the doorway.

"Crystal," I said sweetly. "Now could you move? We're going to be late."

He snarled, but moved aside nonetheless, all the while muttering to himself about incompetent Gryffindors. We took a different path than the one McGonagall had used, but then again, we probably weren't headed back to Dumbledore's office.

"Severus!"

The professor and I turned around to see the short midget dude hurrying towards us. Flitwick, I think his name was. "What?" Snape asked with venom in his voice.

"Peeves is disrupting the kitchens again. He wants to be invited to the feast-"

"So have Argus deal with it," Severus stated drily. "Obviously he's the person for the job. He has nothing better to do."

"But perhaps-"

"Filius!" Snape snapped. "I'm not the caretaker, therefore it is not my problem. Go have Filch clean it up."

With a sigh, the short little man began to back away. "Of course, Severus. I will."

Shaking his head back and forth with a gleam of anger in his eyes, Snape began to walk again. "Come," he said, quickening his already fast pace as he hurried along down the hallway.

"What was that all about?" I asked once I had caught up.

"Nothing."

We walked in silence the rest of the way.

"Severus! What are you doing? Get her into the Great Hall, now," McGonagall called to us.

"We got held up, Minerva. Apparently Peeves was attempting to ruin the feast. Again," Snape drily pointed out. Did this guy ever smile?

"Yes, well..." She pushed me lightly toward a pair of double doors. "We still need to get her out of the Entrance Hall. It's pouring outside; we need the least bit of traffic in here as possible for when the students enter. Dumbledore's informed me the train has already arrived... so will you two move?"

"Come along, Miss Nouvelli," Snape said in a bored voice. "The Great Hall is this way."

Feeling like a dog being led around by a leash, I followed him through a set of big double doors and into a large room. There were four long tables set up length-wise. A fifth t was slightly shorter, but seemed to be the head table as it was set up width-wise.

"Here," Snape said, stopping in front of a middle table. "This is the Gryffindor table. Sit where you like." And then he walked away.

Some tour guide.

I strolled along the length of the table, not sure where along it I should be sitting, and not really caring either way. Still, I figured that if the professor was telling me to pick a spot, I'd better do so. I sat in the middle of the table, not too close to the front of the room to be labeled teacher's pet, and not too far back to be the stoner. Wait. Do wizards even _have _stoners?

Seconds later, the doors opened again. In came chatting students, one after the other, hurrying to their respective tables as if waiting for something brilliant to happen. I was brought to attention by the clearing of someone's throat behind me.

"Excuse me, but do you belong here?"

I turned to see a tall boy with bright red hair standing besides another boy with black messy hair and glasses, and a girl with bushy brown hair. The three of them were looking at me with curiosity in their eyes, as if they couldn't figure out what I was doing.

I played it cool... er, cold. "Why wouldn't I?"

The three of them exchanged glances, perhaps getting ready to tell me I was nuts or something, but then Dumbledore began to speak. "Let," the headmaster said in a commanding but kind voice as the three interrogating me sat down quickly besides me. "The sorting begin!"

The what?

On cue, the double doors burst open and in walked the tiniest people in the entire world. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't remember being that small as a kid. McGonagall put a stool on the ground, and on that she placed the hat I had been forced to try on-

Wait a second! Had everyone in this room worn that hat? Oh god, I think I'm going to be sick.

All of a sudden, the hat came to life! I'm not even kidding, the thing started to sing some song about houses... it scared the crap out of me. And then it suddenly stopped, the Great Hall quieted down again as McGonagall stepped forward, a scroll in her hands. "When I call your name, you are to come forward and try on the Sorting Hat." The Sorting Hat; so that's what it was called. "After it calls out your house, you will go and sit at the appropriate table." She took a breath. "Ackerley, Stewart."

On and on it went. As name after name was called, more and more of the short little newbies stepped out of the line and into their new houses. Eventually, the entire line was 'sorted' and the hat was taken away.

Dumbledore stood up once more. "Before we begin the feast, as I know many of you are quite hungry, I have an announcement." The two boys that spoke to me earlier groaned as the bushy-haired girl rolled her eyes. The boys were obviously starving. "This year, and for the rest of her time at Hogwarts, we will have a transfer student." A murmur rose through the hall at that, and I had to resist the urge to slap him. Could he be any more naive? Now I would be forever branded 'transfer-girl.' No matter what, I would be branded with the stereotypically ludicrous reputation of being a slutty whore with a dark past, all because I happened to be the transfer chick... "All the way from Morning Shots Academy in America, I give you Avery Nouvelli."

He swept his hand in a grand arch towards me, and so it was with a sigh that I stood up. Instantly, everyone's head in the room snapped in my direction, mouths opening in awe at the 'sudden' (not really) appearance of the new girl.

Dumbledore continued as I quickly sat down. "She has been sorted into Gryffindor, and will be entering her fourth year. I trust that everyone here will do all they can to show her around and make her feel comfortable. Now then," he smiled brightly. "For the moment you've all been waiting for. Tuck in!"

I almost groaned as I realized that because of Dumbledore's little outburst, the two starving boys were now staring at me in awe, just like the rest of the table was, oblivious to the food that had just magically appeared in front of them.

Great. Here comes the Spanish Inquisition.

* * *

Hey world! I finally wrote the third piece to the threeshot series. Amazing, isn't it? Thank you to Blink 182 (who is getting back together! Amazing!) for this song called I Miss You!

A quick note: I know Avery seems a little harsh right now, but that's kind of the point. This whole story is about her breaking down her barriers and learning to trust. Granted, there are some fun moments within it, but there will be moments that make you want to tear your hair out because she's being an idiot.

You have been warned.

So I hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day, I'm only a day late so celebrate with me and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and then I'll Love it!

Lurve forever,

-Selene


	5. The Twiwizard Alliance

"Funny, I could have sworn you were all starving seconds ago, so why the sudden lack of interest in food?"

The boys jumped as next to them, the bushy-hair chick chuckled to herself. She caught my eye, holding her hand out to me with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet someone from so very far away. My name is Hermione Granger. I'm a fourth year too."

I took her hand to be polite (no sense in alienating myself from the entire school in one day), but shook it with a forced smile. I suppose I was a little closed off, but I'd never been very good with change. "What's up?"

"What's up?" the red-headed boy asked me with an eager look in his eye as he grabbed a chicken leg from in front of him. "Is that American language? What does it mean?" I assumed Hermione would come to my rescue, but she seemed just as interested in the answer as the rest of the table was.

Oh dear.

I rolled my eyes at the question. "If you seriously had to ask me that, than you're going to have a helluva time understanding me, kid."

"Hey," he replied, the tips of his ears turning red to match the bright color of his hair. "We're the same age!"

I snorted. "Hardly, I'm a year older than everybody here." At the questioning looks of my newfound peers, I sighed. "The curriculum at Morning Shots was a year behind, apparently." Great, now I'd look like a foreign dumbass.

"Excellent," I heard two voices chorus from the other end of the table. Looking over, I saw a pair of twins that could have been red-head's older brothers - actually, they probably were. "Hello, Nouvelli," one of them said. "I'm Fred Weasley and this is my brother George. We're sixth years-"

"Avery," I interrupted.

Fred blinked. "Excuse me?"

I rolled my eyes again, giving him the stereotypical rich-snooty-American-girl look as I answered. It's not like he would think differently of me anyway. "Nobody calls me Nouvelli. I don't do that weird English-boarding-school- last-name thing. It's Avery."

I heard a gasp from my right and I turned around again. "I remember you!" I met the eyes of a girl with dark hair and dark eyes. I tried to recall where I'd seen her before, because she looked so familiar... "You're that girl from Diagon Alley. The one with the cute American boy!"

Oh yeah.

The lightbulb went on. "You're that girl with the sister." I tried to remember her name. "Patsy, right? Where's your other half?"

"Um, it's Parvati, actually. And Padma is in Ravenclaw, not Gryffindor," she said as if I should have guessed.

Asshole.

"Of course she is." I looked down at the food in front of me. Chicken, fish... was there anything else to eat in this joint? Beef maybe? Or did these people not do beef? "Hey, is there anything other then fish?"

"Treacle tart," the red-head said with a grin. "You want some of mine?"

"Uh, no."

"Why are you dressed like that?" a Scottish boy asked, his eyes traveling down to my shortened skirt and the cleavage my shirt revealed. I fought a sigh.

"Because I don't want to look like a prude."

Hermione raised an eyebrow in confusion. "A what?"

"I've got some chicken," the red-headed boy asked again, still focusing solely on the food.

"I had chicken for lunch."

"Well the fish is great-"

"I don't eat fish."

"Really," George asked, pushing the red-headed kid out of the way as he claimed the seat besides me. I rolled my eyes as he attempted to oh-so-subtlety put his hand on mine. "Now why not?"

"We're going to be roommates, you know," a blond girl interrupted. "You, me, Parvati, and Hermione. I'm Lavender."

"Great."

"Who was that guy Padma and I met in Diagon Alley? Is he your boyfriend?"

"He was."

"Oh dear," Lavender said with a gleam in her eye. "How tragic! What happened? Did he dump you?"

"Nope."

"Then what-"

"I dumped him." I was really getting sick of this press conference, and I kept looking around for someone to bail me out. But no help was coming. I silently cursed Dumbledore and all his naive glory. Stupid dumbass bastard... "Seriously, any other food-"

"Why is your hair like that," a kid with a camera asked as he snapped a picture of me.

Jeez, it really _was _like a press conference.

I pushed the camera out of my face. "Beat it kid or I'll kick your scrawny little ass." Silence. Who knew angry snakiness was the answer to my problems? Just as I was silently congratulating myself for ending the downpour of questions...

"Why _is_ your hair like that?"

I sighed. "Because I like it."

"What was Morning Shots like," Hermione asked, a look of wonder in her eyes. I mentally groaned: She was already identifying herself as the overly academic type. "Was it very educational? Did it focus on Transfiguration? I've read-"

"It was boring." At least, that's what Ty had always said. "Now about that food-"

"We've got salad," Fred said, holding up a bowl to me. "Of course, if you don't like salad, George and I could sneak into the kitchens and have the house elves make you something to-"

_Crash_.

The attention was turned away from me for a moment and I breathed a sigh of relief, thanking Hermione for... dropping her glass? Well, sure that's a weird way to distract the others, but whatever floats your boat... "Are you saying," she sputtered. "That there are _house elves_ here at Hogwarts?"

What the hell were house elves?

"Well, yeah Hermione," George said uncomfortably. "Who else did you think made the meals, cleaned the rooms, lit the fires...?"

"But, don't they get paid? And vacations and sick leave," the brunette persisted. "They get benefits here that they wouldn't get with other employers, right?"

"Er, not really," Fred said with a shrug. "But honestly Hermione, they seem pretty happy here. I'd leave it alone."

She pushed her plate away, shaking her head at me as I started to eat the salad. It may have been healthy rabbit food, but it was still better then nothing. "I won't eat another bite," she said as the red-head rolled his eyes. "Ron," she snapped at him. "We shouldn't be eating this! Slaves made this meal!"

"And I acknowledge that," Ron said with a shrug and a full mouth. A true guy. "But I'm hungry, 'Mione. I might as well eat it."

"But-"

At that moment, Dumbledore cleared his throat. The Great Hall quieted at once, and as cliche as it is, you could hear a pin drop. It was eerie, almost as if he was a president about to announce something important. "Now that everyone has filled there bellies with luxurious food and drink." Hermione snorted next to me. "I have a few announcements to make. First of all, there will not be a Quidditch tournament this year-"

Cries of outrage were heard. The boy with untidy black hair exchanged howls of frustration with Fred and George. "Come on," he bellowed at no one in particular. "Why not?"

Me? I was still wondering what the hell Quidditch was.

Dumbledore raised a hand, and gradually the crowd quieted. "I assure you, there is a very good reason for this. You see, after much consideration, the Ministry has decided to-" He was cut off by the sound of the double doors leading to the Great Hall being thrown open and banging against the wall.

We all spun around, turning to stare at the man that came through them. He was of normal height in my opinion, but that wasn't what stood out to me at first. No, my first thought was _Holy crap_, because this guy looked scary as hell. He was scarred, faint lines running along his face. A chunk of his nose was missing, going great with the wooden leg he had instead of a foot. The most surprising thing however, would have to be the fake eye he had _that was moving around and watching people._

Shit.

Dumbledore smiled at this freak show. "There you are, Alastor. I was beginning to fear that you would miss the feast entirely."

"Sorry Albus," he croaked, his voice scratchy, as if he'd just smoked twenty or so cigarettes. "The ministry kept me occupied."

"Ah, of course." Dumbledore turned to us. "I would like to introduce you all to Professor Moody. He will fill the position of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the year."

"Moody," the boy with the untidy hair asked Ron. "As in Mad-Eye Moody?"

"Yeah," Ron responded. "Blimey. I didn't know he'd be teaching this year!"

"You reckon that's what Percy was so smug about," George asked his brother.

Fred shook his head. "Absolutely not. Dad would have told us if this was the big secret, especially considering he had to bail Mad-Eye out the other night."

Right.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued. "This year, the Ministry of magic has decided to bring back the Triwizard Tournament." Murmurs of surprise filled the crowd, as next to me, some (like Fred and George) cheered, while others (like the black-haired boy and myself) looked on in confusion.

"I understand that not all of you may know what this means," Dumbledore said, holding up a hand once more to beg for silence. He stared at me, a calm look upon his face, as if he had Spidey senses that discerned my uncertainty. "And so I shall explain: The Triwizard Tournament is an inter-school tournament between the three main wizarding schools in Europe: Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts. An impartial judge then selects one champion from each school..."

On and on he went, explaining everything about this competition from the history to the reason they discontinued the tournament in the first place. "A _death toll_," Hermione hissed. "And they're bringing the competition _back_?"

I personally agreed with her (seeing as I had no desire to risk my life in any way, shape, or form), therefore I wasn't at all disappointed by the age limit. However, others were. "This isn't fair," George protested. "We'll be seventeen later in the year!"

Dumbledore explained there was a thousand galleon prize money and the eternal glory the twins seemed to covet so much. He also mentioned that the champions would have to face three grueling tasks to win it.

"Now then," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in as eye as he scanned the crowd. "You have a lot to digest here. I suggest we all turn in."

With that dismissal in mind, the students in the hall all stood, anxious to gossip about the tournament. I meanwhile, was anxious to follow everybody in my house back to the common room, because I had no idea where the hell it was. Confucius says it would have been smarter to pay attention to where I was going on the way _to_ the Great Hall, but I was a little too enamored by the moving portraits...

Fred was the first to speak, leading a small group of us out of the Great Hall as he attempted to put an arm around my waist. I think he was trying to establish himself as a player... "Can you believe him? An age limit... Really, it's as if he doesn't trust us!"

"And it's not like it would be that much of a difference, really," George added as we started to walk towards the staircase.

"Dumbledore did it for safety," Hermione said with a stern look. I mentally nodded to myself. So she _was_ the uptight academic one in the group.

Ron snorted, "Aw, drop it, Hermione." She opened her mouth to respond but Ron cut her off. "Can you imagine? A thousand galleons... and eternal glory."

"The galleons I'd like," the black haired kid said with a grin. "Not so much the glory."

"What do you think, Avery," Fred said, finally giving up his futile quest to wrap me up in his arms. I was a little surprised that they were including me in the conversation. I thought for sure once my novelty had worn off, they'd shut me out and leave me to fend for myself. "Are you going to try and compete?"

"And risk death? Ha, no."

"But think of the galleons," George said with a grin. "And all the chocolate frogs you could buy with it." Chocolate frogs... They weren't actual frogs, were they? "Doesn't that sound brilliant?"

"Not really," I said with a shake of my head.

"Well what about the glory then," Ron said with a flirtatious smile that had Hermione scowling. "Surely glory means something to you."

"Definitely not." I nodded toward the kid with untidy black hair. "I agree with him on that matter - what's your name, anyway?"

His eyebrows rose. "You're kidding, right? Is that some kind of funny American joke?"

"Really," Fred said with a laugh. "You'd have to be mental not to recognize him." The group around me proceeded to laugh at my expense, as I followed along reluctantly, knowing that I was being made fun of but not realizing how...

"Blimey," George suddenly exclaimed. "I don't think she's kidding. You really don't recognize him, do you?"

"No," I said, tilting my head to the side to glance at the boy, wondering if he was some rockstar or something. Crap. Did the wizarding world even _have_ rockstars? "Should I?"

"Okay," the boy said, trying to hide his smile. "My name is Harry Potter."

Silence.

Then: "Should that mean something to me?"

The five of them stared at me in incredulous disbelief. "You must be joking," Hermione said frantically. "There's not a wizard in this world who hasn't heard of Harry Potter before... unless you aren't a wizard in this world! You aren't a- mhmph! mphhh!"

In a flash, I lunged forward, pressing my hand up against her mouth, my glare burning into her frightened stare. "Would you shut up," I hissed, glancing around the nearly deserted corridor to see if anyone had heard. It looked as if I was in luck; we were in the clear. "Don't talk about things you don't understand, girl. Just shut up."

"Is she right," Ron asked. "Are you like, an alien or something?"

Snorting, I released my hold on Hermione and stepped back. "Yeah, that's it. You caught me. I'm from Pluto and I've come to take over your planet. Good going Sherlock. No!" I shook my head in disgust. "You idiot, I'm not an alien."

"Of course she isn't," Fred said, coming to my defense. He gave his younger brother a knowing look. "She's much to hot for that."

"Then how come she doesn't know about Harry," Ron protested.

"Give me a quiet place to talk," I hissed in a deadly voice. "And I'll tell you." Well this sucks. I had to come up with a viable excuse for being ignorant, explaining something I didn't even understand to a group of people I didn't know if I could trust...

Fred grabbed my arm, pulling me into an empty classroom in the middle of the hall as George put what he said was a silencing spell on the room so no one could overhear us. "So talk," Harry said sharply.

And I did. Oh, don't get me wrong. It's not like I gave them my life story, or even told them about the prophecy or that the Death Eaters (lame name, by the way) might be after me. But I did say that Dumbledore found me. I mentioned how he thought it was odd that Morning Shots hadn't picked me up, and that he was offering me a position at his school to help hone my magical powers.

"I grew up without even knowing that the magical world existed," I finished, letting it all sink in. "Dumbledore was worried that because of my magic, I might be in danger, though from who I'm still oblivious." Not true, but a lie was the best option...

Harry frowned. "Then how come Parvati saw you in Diagon Alley with some guy?"

I waved the concern away. "My ex. He goes to Morning Shots. Funny, I always thought it was just some snooty prep school." I laughed once without humor.

Fred shook his head, worry lines appearing on his handsome face. "You need to keep this quiet, Avery. I mean it, if some people found out... You can't trust anyone at this school. Not anyone except for us and Dumbledore."

"We'll protect you," Harry said, stepping forward. "We'll cover for you when you don't know something you should and tell you everything you need to know."

"And I'll tutor you," Hermione said with a kind smile. "If you're going to go about unnoticed, you need to know _some _magic."

Because I totally want a tutor who is _this_ bossy.

"Just keep quiet, Avery." Harry held out a hand to me. "Keep quiet, and everything will be okay."

I gave a Cheshire cat grin and took his hand, shaking it once and sealing the alliance I had somehow managed to stumble upon. "No worries."

* * *

I arrived at the dorm room with Hermione to find myself ambushed by Parvati and Lavender The two girls were stretched out in flannel button-down pajamas on one of the beds. They jumped to their feet as we walked in, both of them attempting to talk to me at once.

"Whoa there," I said, raising an eyebrow at the clamber the two girls were making. "How about we go one at a time?"

A pause, and then: "What happened with you and your boyfriend, Avery?"

I snorted, turning my back on them as I walked over to my trunk. "I love how _that's _what you want to know."

"Well why not, Avery?" Parvati asked. "He's gorgeous."

I opened my trunk, pulling out my sweat pants and a purple belly-bearing cami. "That may be, but he's an American." I shut my trunk with an audible _click_. "And according to you, all Americans are idiots."

Parvati's face grew red. "Yes, well... he's still fit."

"That proves nothing but how shallow you are, Parvati," Hermione pointed out, already in her pajamas and climbing into her bed, her bushy hair seeming even frizzier against the red of the room.

Can you say conditioner...

"Oh please, Hermione. You should have _seen_ the boy, he was absolutely stunning..."

"Yes, well. We can talk about stunning men later. We've got class tomorrow, and we all must be well-rested," Hermione said, laying down onto her bed. "We can talk more in the morning."

"But-"

"Go to sleep." Grumbling, the two gossip girls climbed into their respective beds, rolling their eyes simultaneously as they went. I however, shot a grateful look to Hermione, knowing that even though she was a bossy goody two shoes and had the frizziest hair I had ever seen in my entire life, she had just saved me from having to talk about Ty, something I wasn't ready to do yet even if I had broken up with him.

I knew then that somehow, in some wacky way, Hermione and I would eventually become friends.

After all, my intuition is always right.

* * *

"It looks like we have Herbology with the Hufflepuffs first," Harry said, looking down at the schedule that had been handed to him by McGonagall. "Not bad. We'll be outside all morning, it looks like."

"And it should be fairly easy for you," Hermione pointed out. "Seeing as you won't have to do any magic at all."

How were we going to become friends?

Here I was, sitting in the Great Hall on my first full day at Hogwarts, preparing for class while scarfing down toast and a muffin. Hermione was eating again as well, which Ron took great liberty in pointing out.

"What exactly does one do in Herbology," I asked, having never heard of this subject before, but knowing I had a textbook for it somewhere upstairs...

"What," a plain-faced boy with brown hair suddenly popped up besides me. "You've never heard of Herbology? What are they teaching you in that American school?"

Because of this idiot's outburst, I could feel the eyes of other students turn to me, each one wondering what this kid meant. "I meant at Hogwarts," I lied smoothly, ignoring Hermione's wide-eyed look. "I was wondering if it was any different, dumbass."

"Honestly Neville," Harry said with a forced chuckle. "You shouldn't just jump into a conversation like that. It will give you the wrong idea."

"Okay," Neville said, a frightened look in his eyes. "I will - I mean I won't! Sorry."

And with that he ran out of the hall, tripping over his own feet along the way.

"You need to watch yourself, Avery," Ron muttered to me out of the corner of his mouth. "You're going to get into trouble if you don't."

"Oh, please. I can talk myself out of anything." I stood, grabbing my black leather messenger bag that Ty had bought for me at Diagon Alley. I much preferred the leather purse that I used back in the states, but there was no point in standing out more than I did already. "It's a gift. Now come on, let's go."

* * *

By the end of the period, I knew that Herbology was one of those classes I would hate to death but be really good at. Seriously, pus? We had to squeeze _pus_ on our first day back? Well what the hell would Sprout make us do the second day, scratch off scabs?

Still, Hermione was right: there was no magic involved, and I couldn't help but notice how easy the class was, even though it was completely and totally disgusting.

After the pus-filled morning, I followed the rest of the Gryffindors across the grounds and to a stone hut at the edge of a forest that Hermione explained to me was called the Forbidden Forest because students were forbidden to enter it.

Creative.

"These here," the professor stated. He was a big man, a curly black beard covering his face and his dark eyes twinkling as if he were Santa Claus. "Are Blast-Ended Skrewts. Yer job is ter feed 'em today... I don't really know what they eat, so just try a little bit o everything."

"Damn," I muttered, keeping my distance with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. We were doing our best to avoid the free-for-all that had become the Slytherins and Gryffindors attempting to care for the skrewts. "Could this be any weirder?"

"Yes," the three of them responded at once.

Oh goody.

"Really, Avery. This is actually perfectly normal, although I wouldn't go near those things if I were you," Hermione said with a shudder.

"What do you know about them?" Harry asked curiously.

A frown overtook the brunette's face as she answered with a frustrated groan. "I don't know! I've never heard of Blast-Ended Skrewts before."

Harry and Ron exchanged nervous looks. "That can't be good," Ron said under his breath.

"I'm amazed! Granger _actually_ admitted that she didn't know something. I didn't think it was really possible," we heard from behind us.

Turning around, I saw a pale boy in a serious need of some tanning oil wearing the Slytherin's robes, two of his meaty looking friends beside him. He had cold, grey eyes that had taken on a mocking stare, and pale blond hair that looked so far from natural.

"Dude," I said before Harry or Ron could get a word out. "You need to stop bleaching your hair, it's going to kill your roots."

The boy's eyes darkened as my three house mates laughed at the remark, though from the confusion in Ron's face, I don't think he understood the diss. "This _is _natural. Although I suppose you would know all about dye damage, American scum," he growled, nodding towards my highlights.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh please, bleach is ten times more harmful then multi-colored streaks. Trust me, I would know." Thanks to that vision I had a few months ago...

The boy smirked at me, a cocky look overtaking his features and masking the anger I had placed there. "You might want to be careful, new girl. I am in charge here. What I say, goes. And if I don't like you... Whoops. You might find yourself on a train back to Morning Shots."

I pulled a face. "You do know that Morning Shots is across the ocean right? You can't get to it by train."

"And you're not in charge here, Malfoy," Harry said confidently. "Not even close."

Malfoy shook his head, that cocky smirk still lighting up his face. "We'll see about that, Potter."

And then he left, taking Thing one and Thing two with him. I turned to Ron. "Who was that?"

"Nobody," the taller boy said, shaking his head in anger. "Just Draco Malfoy, the biggest git on the entire planet."

I paused, letting this new information sink in as I stood there. Finally, I spoke. "Okay then. What's for lunch?"

* * *

"Divination?"

"Yeah," Harry said as we climbed the steps of a tower that led to our next class. It was after lunch, and Hermione was no longer with us, having bolted down her food as quickly as she could before running off to the library to study.

Nerd.

"Divination is a useless subject. I don't know why I bothered to take it," Ron said as he hit his fist against the wall of the corridor. "It's all about predicting stuff." My ears perked up at this. Really? Then maybe this would be an easy subject for me. "Trelawny is completely fake."

I'll be the judge of that.

* * *

Hey everybody, long time no see! First off, I'd like to say that I had competition, and then spring break so there was no way I could update for almost a month! C'est tres tragic!

But I'm back now, and even though the updates will be far and few between until June twelth due to dance, finals, and the AP History test (yikes!), I'll still try my hardest to get at least one update out a week!

So I hope you all like it! I took only the plot from the actual book, except I twisted it a little...

So drop me a favor and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and then I'll Love it!

Lurve forever more,

-Selene


	6. Just Like Magic

Harry, Ron, and I climbed the spiral staircase to the top of the tower where other students already sat waiting. Let me just point out that now I know why they don't have a PE class at Hogwarts. With all the stupid staircases you have to climb to get to your class, nobody would have any energy left to do any running.

This much was made obvious be the fact that both Harry and Ron were huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf as we reached the top. While I was a conditioned dancer and therefore in good shape, it seemed these two didn't do much to keep fit over the summer.

Idiots.

The dimly lit hall was filled with portraits, their eyes following our every move as we wandered down the corridor. We reached the end, a wall blocking our way as besides me a candle flickered. Students were already gathered at this dead-end, all waiting for something, though I wasn't sure what.

"What are-" I was cut off as above me, a trap door slid open and a ladder was thrown down over the side. Well this wouldn't make for an orderly evacuation come an emergency. "Oh," I said as Harry and Ron raised their eyebrows at me. "Never mind."

One by one, students grabbed the ladder and began to hoist themselves up through the trapdoor. Harry went, easily pulling himself through the hole. Ron signaled that I should go next, and so with a sigh and a mental scolding at myself for wearing a skirt today, I grabbed the ladder and began to climb.

Harry was waiting at the top, his hand held out gallantly to help me up, but I declined, choosing instead to use the muscles break dancing has given me to hoist myself up without his help.

Stepping into the room, I couldn't help but groan in annoyance. The classroom was just as dank and dark as the hallway below us, a roaring fire lighting the room only a little bit. My eyes would probably fail if I attempted to read in this under lit room. The room was stuffy as hell and in obvious need of ventilation, especially considering the heavy incense that filled the air.

"Come on," Ron muttered to me as he grabbed my arm and started pulling, Harry following along behind. "We have to claim our spot in the back."

I slid into the cushioned seat with ease, resting my elbows upon the small table in front of me as everyone else around us sat down. Silence. Where the hell was the teacher? Shouldn't she be here by now?

"Good morning."

The class jumped as the soft voice spoke. I turned quickly to see an old bat with greying brown hair and gigantic glasses staring at us from besides the fire. She had enough bangles on her arms and sequins on her shirt to put Claire's out of business. "And welcome back to the glory of divination."

Oh. My. God.

"I trust that you all had a pleasant summer," the lady went on. "I know for one of us the summer was far more exciting than planned." Her eyes bore into mine, waiting for my response. I just let my eyebrows raise, knowing the true test as to whether or not she was a fraud would be with what she knew about me.

She smiled lightly, her eyes wrinkling at the corners of her huge spectacles. "Miss Nouvelli," she said softly. "Welcome to Divination. This is where, if you possess the inner eye, you will learn to see beyond life itself!"

I blinked. Beyond life itself? What was she talking about? That wasn't how it worked. When you saw the future, you saw the future. That's it, case closed, no if, ands, or buts. There wasn't anything cosmic about it, you just saw a possible route the future could take.

I guess this means she was a fraud after all.

I smirked at her. "Really," I said, faking interest. "That's just so fascinating. Why, I wish I had magnificent powers just like yours!"

She beamed at me, taking everything I said as praise instead of the insult it truly was. "Maybe in time, my dear, if you choose to take my lessons seriously." Right, like _that_ was ever going to happen.

She turned away from me, continuing to blabber on to someone else for the time being. "What a joke," I muttered to Ron and Harry.

Ron grinned at me. "Ah, so you see through Trelawney as well."

"Oh please," I whispered back. "You'd have to be as blind as she is not to see it."

Harry and Ron snickered besides me at this proclamation, causing Trelawney to turn and face us abruptly. "Ah," she said, still using that slow and dreamy voice of hers. "Harry Potter, tragedy touching his life over and over again... yes, Saturn is strong with you." What? The planets have absolutely nothing to do with premonitions. What was the old bat talking about? "You were born in mid-winter, correct?"

"Uh, no," Harry said with a broad smile. "I was born in July."

I snorted with laughter, bringing Trelawney's gaze back to me. "Do you find something funny, Miss Nouvelli?"

"Actually, I do," I said with a grin. Why not? I might as well reveal her to be the swindler she is. "You see, Saturn is the planet of destruction, not the planet of tragedy, so unless Harry's going around killing people, than Saturn's not with him at all."

How do I know this, you may be wondering? Over the years, I've studied many different self-proclaimed 'future viewing techniques' to see why I could see the future I do. While none of them have ever proven accurate, I _have_ learned lots of useless information.

That, and I watched Sailor Moon when I was ten.

"Miss Nouvelli," Trelawney said in that soft voice of hers, her jaw clenched tight. "I don't know what they were teaching you at Morning Shots, but I assure you that I am absolutely correct in my reading of the planets."

"But are you willing to bet your life on that," I asked with raised eyebrows. "It seems to me that if you're making false predictions based on your inaccurate knowledge of the planets, you may be fated to die and you wouldn't even know it. And we all know what a tragedy that would be."

Trelawney stared at me, her mouth open in shock as I peered smugly back.

* * *

"Why'd you have to open your mouth like that? Do you realize how much homework the old hag gave us because of you?"

"Oh shut up," I said as we made our way into a courtyard, Hermione by our side once again. "You didn't really expect me to just sit there and let her be wrong, now did you? Besides, this homework is a load of crap. It won't do you any good, you know?"

"But we still have to pass the class," Ron said angrily.

"Wait a second," Harry stopped, grabbing my arm lightly. "How would you know it wouldn't do us any good?"

Me and my big mouth. I hesitated, not wanting to give away anything just in case I couldn't trust them. I was about to deny knowing what Harry was talking about, when we were interrupted by the bleach-blond boy.

"Hey Weasley! You see the paper yet?" Malfoy stepped up to us, his side-kicks right behind him. "You're father's famous." He shoved a newspaper up to Ron's face. "Go on," he said with a malicious laugh. "Read it for yourself."

Ron took it from him with a glare and began to read it silently, Hermione and Harry examining the literature over his shoulder. Me? Yeah, I didn't really care. I chose instead to keep my eyes on Malfoy, seeing as he was watching me.

"What are you staring at?" he snapped finally, smirking at me with confidence. "See something you like?"

"No, do you?"

His smirk fell right off his face as he growled at me. "Don't you insult my taste, you filthy little mudblood."

"Too late, I already did. Remember this morning when I dissed your hair?" I looked over to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione staring at the two of us, the newspaper long forgotten in Ron's hands. "You guys done already?"

"Weasley probably stopped upon seeing that dreadful picture of his mother. As you can see," the Malfoy smirk was back. "She could stand to lose a little weight."

I snorted in amusement. "Then what does that mean for the two thugs behind you?"

Dumb and Dumber exchanged looks as besides me Harry, Ron, and Hermione snickered. Malfoy shook his head in rage. "You think you can talk to us that way just because you're an American girl who wears her skirt too short?"

I rolled my eyes. There it was, the stereotype that I knew would classify me at this school. "Uh, yeah." Turning on my heel, I motioned for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to follow me. "Come on. Let's bounce." I started to walk away, all too aware of Ron asking Harry what 'bounce' meant in American.

All of a sudden, there was a flash of white light and a scream. I whirled around, looking for danger as I felt my three new friends do the same. Turns out there was no danger, just Mad-Eye Moody yelling at Malfoy's goons about dishonesty as he moved a little white ferret through the air-

Wait, what?

"Never in all my years have I ever seen such a blatant act of cowardice," he complained, all the while moving the ferret up and down... "Attacking a student while their back was turned! Did he hit you," he said suddenly, his magical eye landing on me.

"Did who hit me," I asked, raising my eyebrows at the senseless question.

And then I got it.

"Wait," I said slowly. "The ferret... is that... Malfoy?"

"Sure is," Moody snarled, giving his wand another jerk. "And the boy deserves it too. Attacking you like that... well you said you wanted to bounce, Miss Nouvelli. Here it is." He proceeded to bob the ferret up and down again...

I grinned, this was priceless.

"Oh," Ron gasped with laughter. "This is bloody brilliant."

"I don't think I'll ever forget this," Harry agreed.

"But... but won't he get in trouble," Hermione asked, her face growing pale with worry.

"Who the hell cares," was my contribution. "This is gold! Absolute gold! Aw, I wish I had my camera!"

And that was when it ended.

"Professor Moody!" McGonagall hurried forward, her eyes wide at the scene before her as she pushed through the crowd that had gathered. "What on earth are you doing? Break is no time to demonstrate... is that a _student_?"

"Maybe," Moody growled, flipping Malfoy the bouncing ferret through the air.

"No," McGonagall shrieked, diving for Moody and his wand. "Professor Moody, using Transfiguration on students as a punishment is not allowed at Hogwarts! You mustn't do it again!" And with a flick of her wrist, Malfoy was once again Malfoy.

Moody shook his head, his magical eye resting on McGonagall while his real one glared at Malfoy. "If only you knew," he muttered darkly before turning around and stomping off towards the castle. Malfoy took the opportunity to run, his minions trailing after him as he bolted into the castle.

"All right everyone, clear out," McGonagall commanded briskly. "Go on, back to your classes."

The trio and I stared at each other, eyes wide in amusement as we tried hard not to crack up. Fred and George approached us quickly, the former throwing his arm around my shoulders as he laughed heartedly.

"Isn't Moody amazing," he chuckled as I pulled his arm off my shoulders. "It's a wonder this place ever got along without him."

"Right," George added. "With nobody being turned into fluffy woodland animals, how did this place ever get by?"

"Can you imagine what his classes must be like," Ron asked, his mouth open in wonder as he watched Moody's retreating back.

"Don't have to. We already had him," George said with a grin. "There's nothing like it." Ron nearly tackled Hermione to grab a copy of our schedule before groaning in annoyance that we wouldn't have him until Thursday.

* * *

The week continued slowly as I gradually got used to the magical world and all it had to offer. Don't get me wrong, it still skeeved the hell out of me when a ghost would pop through the classroom wall, and I didn't like the fact that the stairs took to moving while I was _standing upon them_, but for the most part a sense of normality was starting to settle down.

That being said, school was starting to kick my ass in terms of the difficulty level.

Transfiguration was what started my day off Tuesday, and despite the uncreative name, the actual subject was something that took way too much concentration for my liking.

McGonagall took one look at me in the beginning of class and spontaneously decided that we would use the first lesson of the semester as a review day to re-figure out all the spells we will have forgotten over the summer. Apparently, she's never done this before because the eyes of everyone in the class drifted towards me.

Great.

I had a bitch of a time at first, not even coming close to transfiguring the thimble into a needle, although why I will ever need to do this in my life is beyond me. Still, once Hermione began to whisper helpful hints, I managed to figure it out.

I was super excited about my newfound skill, until Hermione played kill-joy and reminded me that I had just mastered year one transfiguration, and I still had another two years to go if I wanted to catch up with the rest of the class.

Thanks for that.

Potions, on the other hand, was a completely different story. Snape didn't give any review sessions at all, ignoring me completely except for the sneer he sent my way as I entered the room. He went about putting instructions on the board, something that the other students had apparently made last year and should know how to make by now.

Fortunately for me, I had little trouble following the recipe, seeing as I had taken Home Ec freshmen year and was fairly used to the stirring and dicing that came with making soup... er, a potion.

By the end of class, Snape was walking around the room and commenting on the potions of my peers, making snide remarks at the coloring or consistency. When he reached mine however, he stared down at me, the faintest lines of surprise showing in the corners of his eyes before he glared deeply and moved on without saying anything.

My eyebrows went up as I exchanged shocked looks with Hermione. What was _that _about?

"Class dismissed," Severus drawled as his students rushed to put away their belongings as quickly as they could. "Miss Nouvelli, my desk, now." Next to me, Harry's eyes went wide as he wished me luck. Well _that_ certainly boosted my confidence level...

The class emptied out as I presented myself to Professor Snape, wondering what this was about. I didn't have to wait long. "Did Miss Granger help you today, Miss Nouvelli?"

I blinked. That was all he wanted to know? "With the spells?" I asked. "Yeah, sure. I now have the fearful ability to turn a thimble into a needle. Just think, if I have enough thimbles, I can turn into the world's sickest acupuncturist. Want to see?"

Snape scowled at my sarcasm, ignoring my comment altogether. "Clever, Miss Nouvelli. However I was inquiring as to whether or not Miss Granger helped you with the potions assignment this afternoon."

"Oh that? Not at all. What, you don't think I'm capable of cooking? Hell even if I wasn't, I took chemistry last year. I know what I'm doing," I bragged with a cocky smirk.

Snape stared at me, and for a moment I thought I'd seen a look of curiosity mingle with his normal stare of blatant dislike, but maybe I was just imagining things. "Well," he said finally. "Let's see if you posses natural talent or if you'd just gotten lucky."

"Oh Professor," I said sweetly. "It's both. I have natural talent and I got lucky a few months ago with Ty. You met him, remember?" Leaving Snape with a look of horror upon his face, I strolled from the room.

Despite whatever natural talent or student tutors that I may have possessed, all of my teachers had decided that I needed to play catch-up, and were assigning me multiple readings to be finished by the weekend. By the time nine o'clock Wednesday night had arrived, I was looking forward to the break from magic.

Dumbledore had decided that I was to leave for LA for dance rehearsals from his fireplace so as not to arouse suspicion from my peers, but that since I'd be returning at such a late hour, I could come back through the Gryffindor fire. Stepping through Dumbledore's fireplace as he nodded kindly, I landed in the living room of Ty's house, his back to me as I came through the fireplace, coughing up a storm. Man, I will never get used to that.

"Come on," my ex said roughly as he began to walk from the room. I followed him through the reddish-orange halls of his house and into the garage where he kept his black Honda Civic.

Without a word to me, he climbed into the driver's side and started the car. Taking this as my cue to get in, I opened the door with a sigh, knowing that this was about to be the longest car ride of my life.

* * *

"You bitch!"

Darcy jumped me as I walked through the doors of our dance studio, throwing her arms around me in a friendly gesture even when her words contradicted her actions. "How dare you leave me to go to Morning Shots! I didn't even know you'd applied!"

I grinned sheepishly as I recalled the lie I had told my best friend for her safety. "I wanted to wait until I was sure I'd gotten in."

Darcy huffed. "Well what the hell am I going to do now? It's just Anderson and me, seeing as you deserted us..." A sneaky smile crossed her features. "For Ty, none the less. You trying to hit that in school now, too?"

"Darcy!"

I wasn't exaggerating when I had told Snape that I'd gotten lucky months before. Tyler and I weren't exactly getting it on regularly, but we _were_ getting it on... or at least we had been before I'd broken up with him.

"We aren't together anymore," I hissed, as I watched Anderson and Tyler conspiring together out of the corner of my eyes.

"What? When did this happen?"

"I'll tell you later, can we just get on with rehearsal, please?" I begged.

Darce blinked, worry beginning to color her features as she saw my desperation. "Of course," she said softly after a pause. "Yeah, let's." She clapped her hands together once. "All right guys, let's get this show on the road."

Darcy was my perky best friend, almost as loud as she was energetic. I suppose that was part of the reason that we had made her Friction's unofficial leader, the girl in charge who would keep us all focused and hold us together.

"Avery," she turned to me, the authoritative note still in her voice. "Your new pointe shoes came in, I need you to sew the ribbons on by next rehearsal, okay?" I nodded to show my understanding. "Also," she said. "I think it would be best to add your lift to the character piece."

This shocked us as Tyler and I both let out a surprised "What?" at the same time.

"You heard me. The lift that you guys came up with is perfect, we can add it during the turn section. Which means," she turned to me again. "That you'll need to re-cut the character mix for And the Money Kept Rolling In."

I nodded to show understanding, even though I was secretly wondering how Ty and I were expected to do a lift with so much trust involved when we could barely be in the same room together.

For the first time ever, I hated it that Tyler and I were the crew's designated choreographers.

* * *

I stumbled through the fireplace and into the common room at a quarter to one in the morning, knowing that I would be forced to get up in four hours so I could eat. As drop-dead tired as I was, I couldn't sleep yet, not when I still had to take a shower, sew the ribbons onto my new pointe shoes, cut the music...

"Avery?"

I jumped, startled to have heard my name. Turning quickly, I saw a surprised Fred and George Weasley sitting in armchairs, their heads bent close together over a piece of paper they were attempting to hide from my view. "What were you doing out so late? And why were you coming through the fireplace?" George inquired.

I nodded towards him, pointing at the paper he held. "What's that?" I asked, eyebrows raised in an effort to divert the conversation from me.

Fred and George exchanged quick glances before Fred shook his head. "We won't ask if you don't," he finally conceded.

I nodded. "Night then." As I trudged upstairs, my dance bag still resting comfortably on my shoulders, somewhere in the back of my exhausted mind I realized that I would be experiencing the magnificent Moody tomorrow, and my only wish was that I be awake enough during the class to remember it.

* * *

Help me out and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and then I'll Love it!

Lurve forever more,

-Selene


	7. MadEye

The next morning, I woke feeling like I could sleep for a week. Too bad I was deprived of the opportunity thanks to class. Let me tell you, school on four hours of sleep sucks, especially if you have no idea what the hell you're doing in the first place.

Breakfast was eaten in a rush due to insistent prompting from both Harry and Ron, who wanted to get a good seat in Moody's class before it began. Hermione was no where to be found for most of the morning, starting from when she disappeared from my dorm as I was getting up at seven and only making an appearance as the three of us were leaving the Great Hall.

"Where have you been?" Ron asked, absentmindedly fidgeting with his tie as we walked.

"The library," she answered with a smile.

"Where else," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "Now come on, we need to get good seats!"

As he quickened our pace, I turned to Hermione and made a face. "Do you ever have fun?"

She blinked at me, clearly startled by my blatant question. "I beg your pardon?"

"Well you seem to spend all of your time in the library, and if you ask me that's never any fun. I mean, what do you do with all of your spare time? Study?" I waited for her answer, my eyebrows raised in anticipation.

"No," she sniffed, seeming put-off by the fact that I looked down on the art of learning. "For your information, I was doing research."

I stuck out my tongue in disgust. "Same thing."

* * *

The door opened with a bang, causing the twenty or so students in the room to jump in surprise. In limped Mad-Eye Moody, his eye roving the room faster than we could comprehend. "Books away," he shouted in that deep, gruff voice of his.

I smirked to myself as the class around me put their books back into their bags. I was the smart one, having not taken my book out in the first place at all. Of course, that was because I'd accidentally forgotten it this morning... Moody noticed and gave me a crooked smile, succeeding not in making him look more friendly like he was probably attempting, but instead in highlighting his facial scars as if he was a mutant.

Creepy...

"Now then," he began, placing a covered jar on the desk. "I'm Professor Moody, your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I spoke with Lupin, and while you seem to be well-learnt in dark creatures, you are all behind in dark curses. I have one year to teach you everything you need to know-"

"Wait," Parvati interrupted. "You mean you aren't returning next year?"

"No Miss..."

"Patil."

"Yes, well," Moody focused both his real eye and the magical one on the brunette. "I accepted the position here because Dumbledore asked, end of story. That does NOT mean that I want to spend the rest of my life teaching adolescent children how to defend themselves. Is that clear?"

The class around me nodded in comprehension. "So that's how the curse is getting rid of him," Ron whispered to Harry. I raised an eyebrow at that statement, but the two boys just shook their heads at my lack of knowledge.

Whatever.

"Now," Moody said, clapping his hands together. "Who can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?" Hermione's hand shot in the air with a speed that rivals Michael Phelps in the water. "Yes Miss..."

"Granger, sir," Hermione said seriously. "There are three unforgivable curses."

"Very good. Now, can anyone tell me what they are?" Around me, various hands rose hesitantly as I wondered if these unforgivable curses were anything like the curse that Ron and Harry had been talking about seconds ago. "How about you," Moody said, pointing to Ron. "You're Arthur Weasley's son, correct?"

"Yes Professor." Ron looked down at his desk. "My dad mentioned one er, the Imperius Curse, I think."

"Yes, your father would know a little something about that." With a wave of his wand, the cover over the jar vanished, revealing the giant spiders that moved inside. Ron squirmed in his seat as behind us some of the girls squealed.

Wussies.

Moody delicately reached inside the jar, easily coaxing a spider to climb into his hand. Placing it on the table, Moody pointed his wand at it and whispered, "_Imperio!"_ The spider froze, one of its legs in the air as if it were about to take a step.

Then it began to jump.

From desk to desk, the spider jumped, sometimes landing on people, other times their things. That was when it dawned on me. Moody was controlling it, making it jump further than possible. He was making the spider do this.

Ron leaned as far back as he possibly could when the spider reached him, looking repulsed by it. Harry stayed still, hoping the spider would move on. And it soon did. To me.

Great.

I was the unlucky one, the spider landing on my arm instead of my desk.

That was when it happened.

The second the spider landed on my arm, it froze. It was a different type of freeze than when Moody seized control of it, however. This time, it just stopped, not like it was fighting for control, but instead like it was waiting for something.

All of a sudden, I felt... fear. Fear entered my body, as if this little spider was giving it's emotions to me. The terror of being out of control, the pain of my legs as I was forced to make these long jumps, the horror of a certain death... A second later, the emotions were gone as Moody seized control once more, bringing the spider back to him. He gave me a weird look, but moved on.

"The Imperius curse lets the caster direct every aspect of the victim's life. No control. Just the helpless feeling as you watch someone else take over your existence." Moody put the spider back in the jar. "Now. Give us another curse."

The room was quieter now, less people raising their hands. "Yes," Moody said firmly, pointing to Neville. "You."

"Um," Neville began, sounding even quieter then normal, if that was possible. "The... the Cruciatus curse."

Moody nodded. "Correct. And you are?"

"L-longbottom," he whispered.

Moody stared at him for a moment, seeming to comprehend something only he would understand before nodding to himself and choosing a different spider from the jar. Placing it on the desk, he said, "_Crucio!_"

This wasn't like the Imperius curse at all. No, this one was worse. The spider began to shake around in pain, it's legs quaking, being unable to move. It was a spell of torture, something that had me, the mentally strong dancer, cringing away from it.

Moody stopped suddenly, looking up at us with solemn eyes. "You have to know what you're up against," he said quietly. "You can't be ignorant. Not in this world. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he yelled, causing us to jumped in surprise.

"Now," he said. "The last curse. What is it?"

Hermione was the only one who's hand went up this time. Either no one knew what the curse was, or it was too horrible for anyone to say... "Miss Granger," Moody acknowledged.

"The last one," she said in a low voice. "Is... Avada Kedarva."

Moody nodded, pulling the final spider from the jar and pointing his wand at it. "_Avada Kedarva!_"

It happened again. For a split second, I felt the fear of the spider overwhelm me, the fright of what was to come... before it was engulfed in a bright green light. As the light hit the creature, the fear left me... because the spider was dead.

Moody turned back to us. "Avada Kedarva. The killing curse. It's no wonder it's unforgivable. There's no counter curse. No way to defend yourself. They only person to have survived it is Mr. Potter," he pointed to Harry. "Right here."

Oh. So _that's_ why he's such a big deal.

"You have to know what you're up against," Moody growled. "These three curses are dangerous! That's why they're unforgivable!"

Wait a second. Something about that didn't sit right with me, the more that I thought about it, the less it made sense. Raising my hand, I didn't wait for Moody to call on my before I spoke. "Professor, are you saying there are only _three_ unforgivable curses?"

Moody looked down at me. "And you are?"

"Nouvelli," I said, pulling a James Bond. "Avery Nouvelli."

"Well Miss Nouvelli," he said with a smirk, his British accent coming out thicker the louder he talked. "If you had been paying attention at all during my lesson, you would have noticed that I had already mentioned that there are only three of them."

The class laughed at my expense, but I wasn't done. Cocking my head to the side, I said, "So, if I were to use a spell that made your head explode, that would be forgivable? Legal, even?"

The class stopped laughing, turning to Moody in genuine wonder. He nodded to himself once before answering me. "Well thought out, Miss Nouvelli. While that would technically be 'forgivable,'" Ew, he used air-quotes. I thought only American losers did that, not the British losers too. "It may not be for long. The Ministry is cracking down on Dark Magic. And it will still end you a long sentence in Azkaban."

"That seems ridiculous." And a little _too_ obvious a loophole, if you asked me. True, you couldn't go right out and kill someone, but you could make their head explode, thus killing them anyway and earning you a shorter sentence in jail. All right, now I can go on that murdering rampage I've wanted to participate in for so long!

Not.

Class ended on that happy note, and while most of the students grabbed their bags and headed out of the classroom, that wasn't the fate for me. "Nouvelli," Moody growled at me. "Stay here."

Here we go again. Harry and Ron gave me a sympathetic look, Hermione just staring after me with wide eyes as they left. I rolled my eyes. Great, it was my first class with the guy, and already I was in trouble.

Peachy.

"Miss Nouvelli," he began as the last person left the classroom, shutting the door tightly behind them. He let out a deep breath. "Is there something you want to tell me? Something about that... power of yours?"

I blinked in surprise, keeping my face neutral so as not to give anything away... but inside I was freaking out. Didn't Dumbledore say the only people who knew about my powers were Snape and McGonagall, and that everyone else just thought I was a late bloomer? How did Moody know?

I shook my head, sliding a confused expression across my face. "I don't know what you mean."

Moody chuckled. "Sure you do," he said lightly. When I didn't respond, he sighed and elaborated. "The spider," he said firmly. "You thought I didn't notice... You have an affliction for animals, don't you?"

Oh. That was it.

I nodded, relief washing over me at this new viable excuse. "Yes," I said calmly, glad he didn't know the truth. "That's why they put me in Care of Magical Creatures. Because I have a connection with animals." Hell, as far as I knew, I had no such powers, but if that's what Moody wanted to think...

Fred's words came back to me then, haunting me_. "You can't trust anyone at this school. Not anyone except for us and Dumbledore." _Those words brought a bad feeling to me, a premonition that I couldn't quite grasp...

I said my good-byes to Moody and left the room, my worries leaving me as I left him.

* * *

Prediction charts.

This was how I spent my Thursday night, filling out what was supposed to happen to me within the next month by using the positions of the planets, despite the fact that planets _have nothing to do with the future._

Harry and Ron spent all of two minutes trying to do it Trelawny's way before mutually deciding to make it all up. As they choose death after death, each method becoming more ludicrous than the last, I played it safe and cheated.

I used my future seeking abilities.

You see, the future isn't set in stone. It's always changing as different variables come into play, as people make their own decisions and control their own destinies. The fate or free will argument constantly being depicted on LOST is easily answered in real life. That being said, the past _is _set in stone. Unlike on LOST, you can't alter history. No matter what you do, you can't change the past, you can only cause the past events to happen.

How would I possibly know this? Over and over again, I've done research, pulled a Hermione and spent hours reading up on the subject of the future, but to learn about the future, you have to learn about the past. The one constant in this ever-changing equation is that you can't change the past. It's set in stone, whatever happened, happened.

But you can change the future.

Just like with Darcy at competition, the future was changed due to me telling her what would happen. If I hadn't said anything, she would have broken her leg.

But enough of this cosmic crap. As I was saying, I used my future seeking abilities to make my predictions. Starting with the first day of October where I would be rehearsing with Friction...

The night wore on, Harry and Ron's predications getting increasingly outrageous while mine stayed realistic. I'd actually gained some important intel from this homework assignment, learning that I would fail a History of Magic quiz unless I studied and that I needed to practice really hard on the summoning charm because it would be difficult for me.

Hermione eventually entered the common room, a mess of paper and a box in her hands. "Hello," she said as she approached us. Glancing down at Ron's work, she frowned. "I see you're going to die by meteor this month."

"Yes," Ron said nonchalantly. "Well, the planets have deemed my death necessary."

"Apparently so, because you're dying by meteor twice," she pointed out.

Ron frowned. "Oh."

"What's in the box," Harry asked.

"Membership badges," she said with a glint in her eye, as if she had been waiting for us to ask her that question. Hermione opened the box then, showing us the badges inside them...

"'Spew?'" Harry asked.

Yeah, that's right. The badges said spew on them. As in vomit. Could there be a worse possible name?

"It's not spew," Hermione huffed, shutting the box quickly. "It's S.P.E.W. It stands for _Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare_. It's an organization promoting elf rights," she said satisfactorily.

Ron nodded. "So... spew?"

"It's not spew," Hermione growled. "It's S.P.E.W.!"

"Does that mean PETA is P.E.T.A.?" I asked with sarcasm.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I've never heard of this before, Hermione," Harry said quickly, trying to cool his friend off. "Does it have a lot of members?"

"Well..." she said, tapping her fingers on the box. "You see... I just made it up. So it has four members... If the three of you join."

I blinked. "You're roping us into some charity case?"

"How else do you suppose people first got the idea for slavery to be illegal," she sniffed at me. "People grouped together to protest the injustice to the government and abolished it."

"Uh, actually, we had a war and Lincoln used the end of slavery as an advantage to get more followers," I said with a roll of my eyes.

"No, that's _your_ country." Turning back to Harry and Ron, she added. "A membership fee will be required to join, but that should help with some of the funding for the freedom of house elves all around the world-"

She was then interrupted by a peck on the windowsill. I jumped in surprise as Harry got up. "It's Hedwig," he threw over his shoulder to Ron and Hermione.

Ron hurried closer. "Does she have Sir - ow!" Ron turned to Hermione. "What was that for?" The brunette responded by looking pointedly at me as I realized that I had almost heard something I wasn't supposed to hear.

I chuckled to myself, gathering my prediction chart off the table. "No worries," I said with a grin. "I'm out." I left the trio behind, muttering to themselves about the contents of the mysterious letter.

* * *

_"Four? Four? There cannot be four of them! Dumbledore, that is against the rules!"_

_"Or did the rules change when you were looking in to reinstating the Tournament?"_

_"I assure you, Igor that I don't know what is going on anymore than you do."_

_I looked around at my surroundings, wondering where the hell I was. The back of my mind registered the thought that I must be somewhere at Hogwarts, the stone corridor giving it away, but where in Hogwarts was still a mystery to me._

_"Why are you complaining about this, Igor?" A new voice spoke now._

_"Why wouldn't I be! This isn't fair. A fourth champion..."_

_I walked towards the sound of the four arguing people, a desperate need to figure out what was going on suddenly overtaking me. A painful sensation rose in me as I felt the anger and fear of those in the room resonate through my body, and I realized I had previously been mistaken. There were more than four in this room..._

_"If anyone has the right to complain," that fourth, familiar, voice said. "It's the boy. And you don't hear a word out of him, do you?"_

_I could feel the end racing towards me as I wandered the hall, I knew that I would never learn who these people were. Nevertheless, in panic I started to run towards their voices, hoping to make it before the end._

_"He'll have to compete," a new voice said quietly._

_I rounded the corner._

And woke up.

I sat bolt upright, my chest heaving as if I had just run a mile. What was that? A premonition? Who was involved? My mind registered that the name Dumbledore had been mentioned, but apart from that, the entire vision was lost on me.

I groaned and fell back onto my bed. Life was twisted enough as it was. The last thing I needed right now was premonitions that made no sense.

* * *

Rehearsal Friday with Friction was hell.

Ty was a complete ass to me, saying barely two words the entire night and refusing to do the new lift, despite Darcy's insistence that we needed to try it. I shook my head at her, though. There was no way I'd trust him to catch me while he was in such a detrimental mood. It was a long night.

We had a performance at a local club a few weeks away that we were rehearsing for. Much like local bands perform, our dance group performs. We had probably two hundred numbers that we could pull from to form a set, so we were good... for the most part.

"Ty, I swear to god, don't test me on this. You are going to practice this lift, dammit," Darcy screeched.

But Tyler just shook his head. "Not now, I'm not."

It broke my heart to see him like this, to know that I was the reason he was like this, that I was the one who was hurting him this way, and that if I didn't keep mentally hurting him, his soul, what made him Ty was going to die. But at the same time, he'd broken my heart, my trust.

Maybe it was my depression over Tyler, but when Darcy invited me to stay with her for the night, I easily accepted. It wasn't like I had classes in the morning, so why not change time zones for a weekend?

It was one of the best decisions I'd made in a while. Darcy turned everything into a girl's night out and invited our friends Sara and Ava along. We hit club after club, fake i.d.'s in hand as we stayed out till three in the morning before the four of us headed back to Darcy's house. I know it sounds a little too Hollywood-dumb-blond like, but for it was a welcome relief. I got to relax, to remember who my friends were and why I had loved my life before all of this magic crap had destroyed it.

Laughing, we fell onto her bed a few hours later, completely wasted. "But the shoes weren't hers," Darcy said giddily. "They just weren't hers!"

Ava chortled. "Oh hell! You've got to be kidding me. They have to be hers."

"But they weren't!"

"What are we talking about," Sara asked, as she slipped her heels off.

"I don't know," Darcy said with a grin. That set us all off again, laughing loudly into the night. As we stripped to our bras and underwear, we began dancing again, reveling in the movement and insanity that being drunk brought us.

By six, the sun was slowly beginning to come up, showing the bags under our alert eyes from lack of sleep. We were just starting to calm down when Darcy asked something. "Avery," she said sleepily. "Why does Ty hate you so much? It was just a break-up, right? So why?"

There was nothing more sobering than the thought that my ex-boyfriend, the man that I was in love with, hated me. I sniffed, not wanting to answer the painful question. "Because," I whispered, hating the answer I was going to give. "I broke his heart with a lie, just like he broke mine."

Silence fell in the room after that, and one by one we all dozed off.

* * *

Hangovers suck.

No joke, I had obviously never been so wasted before in my entire life, because I've never had a hangover that bad before. I'm not a lush by any means, but I thought I could hold my liquor on occasion... I was wrong.

I sighed as I got up, squinting into the late morning sunlight as I did so. I checked my watch, realizing that it was ten on Saturday morning, meaning I had gotten probably less than four hours of sleep.

I stood, taking a second to get my balance back as I did so. I needed to get back to school, no matter if I wanted to or not. Finding my bag, I threw it over my shoulder and took a step, stumbling in the process. This was ridiculous, I didn't have the coordination to walk to Tyler Bauer's house.

So I turned shadow.

It may not have been my brightest move in the world. Turning into a shadow in broad daylight, that is. I mean, what if someone had seen? But no matter; there was no better way for me to travel.

I arrived at the Bauer house in record time, and entered to find the living room empty. Becoming solid again, I reached into the flowerpot by the fireplace. That was when he spoke.

"Where were you last night?"

I spun quickly, making the mistake of moving too fast for my hangover induced vertigo. Tyler stood behind me, a coke in one hand while the other gripped the bottom of his black button-down shirt tightly.

I grabbed for the fireplace to steady myself. "Son of a bitch," I cursed quietly.

Ty took a step forward, a look of concern on his face. "You're drunk," He deadpanned, his eyes easily being able to spot a tipsy me after having known me all his life.

I shook my head and instantly regretted it. "Not anymore." I reached into the flowerpot and pulled out the floo powder. "Shouldn't have had that last shot of tequila, though," I muttered to myself, putting the pot down as I turned, swaggering like a drunk Jack Sparrow.

He scoffed at me in surprise, setting his coke down on the coffee table. "You're going back to school _now_?"

I blinked, surprised by his reaction. "I have to go sometime, don't I? Why _wouldn't_ I go now?"

"Because you're completely hungover and have the morning-after/walk of shame look going for you," he said, making a reference to all those people we pass on our way to the studio Saturday mornings wearing their party clothes from the night before.

"Oh screw you," I said, gritting my teeth in anger. "You have no right to lecture me as if you care, which by the way, you've made it abundantly clear that you do_not_, due to the fact that you lied to me, and you hardly even _look_ at me anymore."

His eyes widened in surprise before taking a pained expression on his face. "Avery, please-"

"No," I said, backing away from the man I had once loved. "You don't get to say please." With that I turned around, threw the powder into the fireplace, and flooed off to Hogwarts, my dance bag on my shoulder and a longing in my heart.

* * *

The common room was too bright.

I suppose that was something I should have expected, it was after two in England by the time I got back to Hogwarts. Still, was it too much to ask that they cut the lights, or at leastdraw the drapes?

"Avery?"

I turned, still pained by the hangover headache, and saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting on the couch by the fire. Ron's little sister Ginny was in the arm chair across from them, and Fred and George stood nearby.

"What are you doing, popping out of the fire like that," George asked with a grin.

"Avery," Hermione said, standing up with a disbelieving expression. "Where have you been? We've all been worried sick over you... "

"I stayed with my friend," I said with a roll of my eyes. "Surely you people have done that before."

Hermione's mouth dropped open in shock. "I can't believe you just left without telling us!"

"Hold on, mate," Fred said, hurrying over to me. "You don't look so good. Are you all right?"

"''Mm fine." I said, shrugging Fred's hand off as he placed it on my arm.

"You sure about that," Fred commented. "You're looking a little pale."

"You're looking a little tired," Ron added.

"You're looking a little hungover," Hermione judged. The rest of the group turned to appraise me, checking for signs that Hermione was right.

Backing away from them, I grabbed my dance bag and started up the staircase and to my room. "Like you've never been drunk," I muttered. "Just leave me alone, will you? I need to sleep."

* * *

...So I know it's been a year and a day since I've updated, but school has been hell... so to make up for it (and to celebrate that I'm out of school for ten whole weeks!), I have this uber long, 4200+ word chapter for you! Yay!

Here's a plug for you guys: I also have begun writing a story called 150 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do at Hogwarts. It's a parody/comedy based on the list that's floating around, and it's basically a bunch of snippets. It's a quick read, and a pretty fun read, so you should check it out! Updates for that one are fairly quick, so the story will end quickly, lol. (Seriously, out of 16 chapters, four have already been posted!)

So make me a thrilled author and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and I'll just Love it!

Lurve,

-Selene


	8. Abuse

The long weeks began to pass and soon, Halloween was approaching. The two other schools would be arriving to participate in the tournament in no time, and all of the Hogwarts students were excited.

"Where do you think they'll stay," Ron asked as we made our way to potions one Wednesday about a week before the other students were due to arrive.

Hermione shrugged. "I'm sure Dumbledore has made various provisions for them." We entered the dungeons, slowing our pace so as not to spend an excess amount of time in Snape's presence.

"How long do you think they'll be here," Harry asked.

"Probably until the end of the competition." We arrived at Snape's room, the last of the class to come through the door.

"And they'll just chill out in their provided areas the entire time," I said drily as I put my stuff at a desk. "Not likely."

Hermione opened her mouth to let out a rebuttal, but Snape swept into the room, interrupting her efforts. The chatter in the classroom ceased as he headed to the front of the room. "Quills away," he barked. "Prepare to brew the strengthening solution you took notes on last class."

I rolled my eyes. A pop quiz, lovely. Snape continued. "You'll be in pairs, so hopefully less of you will fail dismally," he drawled. He had so much confidence in us. "Longbottom and Goyle. Crabbe and Potter. Zabini and Granger. Weasley and Parkinson. Patil..." The pairs kept coming, and finally he got to me. "Nouvelli and Malfoy."

Great.

Malfoy moved his stuff over to my area. "Leave it all to me, Mudblood," he hissed. "You Americans probably have no clue what you're doing."

I shook my head. "Whatever you say, Ferret Boy."

He glared at me, but nevertheless gathered the ingredients as I began to dice some grey blob per Malfoy's instructions. Minutes later, I looked at our potion as it progressed and blinked. Glancing at the directions, then at the potion again, and once more at the directions, I sighed, unable to keep quiet anymore. "Malfoy, we have to add the boomslang skin now."

"No we don't, Nouvelli," he sneered. But I ignored him and threw it in the cauldron anyway. "Hey," he yelled as I began to stir. "What are you doing?"

"Problems," Snape hissed, slithering up to us. His cloak brushed the floor, leaving a whisper in its wake.

"Nouvelli is messing the solution up, Professor," Malfoy said, a grin of delight on his face as I continued stirring.

Snape studied the potion for a moment before looking up at me quizzically. "Mr. Malfoy," he said at last. "Miss Nouvelli had top marks in potions at Morning Shots." I raised an eyebrow. What an elaborate lie. "I advise you to listen to her."

Malfoy's mouth dropped open, but before he could say anything Neville's cauldron blow up, forcing Snape to make a hasty exit. He turned sullenly back to me. "How does a Mudblood like you have a talent in potions," he asked, crossing his arms.

I smirked. "I don't have house-elves to cook for me, Malfoy. It's not that hard to follow a recipe."

Surprisingly, Malfoy let me finish the potion on my own without interfering.

* * *

I bottled the potion and placed it on the desk as class ended, going back to my cauldron to find that Malfoy had already cleaned it for me. I nodded in thanks but he just sneered back at me.

Ass.

I headed to the door. "Miss Nouvelli, a word if you will." I sighed. So close...

Turning around, I headed back to Snape's desk. "Yes?"

He studied me for a minute, his eyes searching mine for some hidden explanation as to how I could do what other advanced witches could not in the form of brewing. "I've been watching you, Miss Nouvelli."

I blanched. "Creepy much."

He scowled and continued on. "For some reason, you can brew potions that others your year cannot, despite your lack of knowledge." He came around from behind the desk to stand in front of me. "For that reason, and that reason alone, I have decided to suspend your extra studies indefinitely. Congratulations. You are now officially caught up with your peers."

I raised my eyebrows. "So... No more brewing random potions that you're making the eleven year-olds brew?"

He shook his head. "No, however I will ask you to still read the required reading for the younger years so you know the properties of different ingredients and potions."

I sighed. "So I'm out of the lab but still in remedial chem class?"

He blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Never mind."

Suddenly, he glared down at me. "I hope you realize that just because you have a sufficient amount of knowledge in the subject that I teach, that doesn't in any way make you a favorite of mine. In fact, all that makes you is average."

I scoffed. "Don't worry. I hate you too."

* * *

I had rehearsal again that night, but I wasn't looking forward to seeing Ty again. The weeks had passed in awkward silence after awkward silence between the two of us ever since the morning by his fireplace. We still had yet to attempt the lift, and Darcy was getting pissed.

"You have got to be kidding me," she snapped that night. "People, competition is in January! It is almost November, and we have six numbers to perfect between the four of us, and that's not including individual solos, duos, and trios," she said, glaring at me. I lowered my head in shame. Ty and I had been working on a duo for the tango... but over the past two months we had accomplished next to nothing.

"Let's run the character number," Anderson said to appease his girlfriend. "Full out," he said, giving Tyler a knowing look. I took a deep breath as I caught Ty's eye. We didn't have a choice; we had to do the lift.

Darcy hit play, and the beginning chords from the _Evita _song And the Money Kept Rolling In began. All was going well, we were hitting the pikes, the quad, the center leap... and then came the lift.

I suppose "lift" is too simple of a term for it. In all actuality, I run at Ty as fast as I can and jump. He lifts me up, throwing me in the air and catching me, having a solid grip on me for half a second before I slide around his body and through his legs, only then touching the ground after being airborne for six counts; as he pulls me up with a body roll.

That's what it's _supposed_ to look like.

We'd correctly done the lift before, don't get me wrong. But what happened that night... it was a complete and total disaster. I ran at him full speed, he grabbed me, threw me up... and I came crashing down to the floor.

"Son of a bitch!"

Anderson stopped the music as Darcy came running over. "Are you okay?"

I grabbed at my right shoulder, glaring at the bastard. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Tyler stared down at me with wide eyes, like he was shocked that one would hit the ground when you didn't catch them. I tried to sit up, but the pain was too great. I screamed in frustration, jerking Tyler from his reverie. "Darce," I said quickly. "Help me pop my shoulder back in."

Tyler's mouth dropped open. "You... you dislocated your shoulder?"

I sneered, taking hold of Darcy's hand as I breathed deeply. "All thanks to you."

"Ready," Darcy said as I took a deep breath. "One, two, three!" I screamed again as my shoulder popped back into place. Damn him!

* * *

We called it a night, Darcy pulling Ty aside for a stern talking to as I went back to his house so I could go home. What an asshole. How could he just sit there and let me fall? We were exs. At one time, we had been best friends. How could he? He had to have realized I could get hurt.

I sighed as I stepped through the Gryffindor fireplace, remembering that I had forgotten to tell them I couldn't go to rehearsal next Friday because that was the day Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrived.

Great.

I had gotten back hours earlier than planned, so I decided to head out and get some dinner in the Great Hall. I made it there just as everyone was finishing up and managed to get a couple of rolls before the food disappeared.

"Avery!" I turned around, seeing the Weasley twins behind me. "There you are. Why weren't you at dinner?"

I shrugged one shoulder, not dumb enough to move my right one just yet. "No reason."

As we began to leave the Great Hall, I collided painfully with a tall and menacing figure. Not all of me hit him though, just my right shoulder. Because that's not cliche at all... "Son of a bitch!" I hissed through my teeth.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Nouvelli," I looked up to find the imposing figure of Severus Snape looming over me. "Language like that may be acceptable back in America, but here it is highly frowned upon."

"Then maybe you should watch where you're going," I snapped, trying to go around me.

Snape grabbed me in furry... by my shoulders. You have got to be kidding me. I cried out in pain and he let go of me immediately, a look of surprise on his face. Taking that as an opportunity, I turned on my heel and left the Great Hall, Fred and George following behind me in confusion.

Seeing as I was pretty damn worthless movement wise, I spent the rest of the night studying like the nerd my father always wished I was. Over my two months at Hogwarts, I had learned that I was pretty good at Transfiguration... but not so good at charms. That could be because I had finished reading all of the first year books for Transfiguration, Potions, and Herbology. The others, however I was still trying to muddle my way through.

I looked at my Divination homework on my bed and rolled my eyes in disgust. To my utter disbelief, Trelawny had loved Harry and Ron's predictions and had abhorred mine, claiming they weren't realistic.

Apparently, it's more realistic to die every day.

Moody had also given us a run for our money, performing the Imperius curse on various members of the class. Harry was soon able to shake the curse off entirely. I, on the other hand, had yet to be placed under the unforgivable, and I was not looking forward to the event at all. I worried that he might find out something about me that he shouldn't know due to being so tightly linked with my brain through the curse.

For some reason, I was weary of Moody. Perhaps it was that Fred's advice was still echoing around in my head: _"You can't trust anyone at this school. Not anyone except for us and Dumbledore."_

I went to bed that night well after everyone else, both mentally and physically exhausted.

* * *

Naturally, since I had fallen asleep after everyone else, I woke up after them too. Jumping out of bed, I quickly threw on the pleated skirt that I had shortened and the short-sleeved white button-down that came with it. I threw my hair into a messy bun and put on my black pumps, not having time to spice up the outfit anymore then that.

My shoulder was still incredibly sore, but I didn't have time to do anything about it. I grabbed my robe, carrying it with me as I hurried out the door and to my first class: Potions.

Having the same class two days in a row should be illegal, and doubly so if said class if on the other side of the school and the first one of the day. I had missed breakfast, and as I slid into my seat at the last possible moment, I was feeling the hunger.

"Uh..." I saw Ron staring at me with wide eyes.

"What?"

"Oh, Merlin!" Hermione rolled her eyes and fished a pocket mirror out of her bag. I had yet to put on my robe... and saw that I had been the idiot to pair my black lace bra with the white shirt.

Great.

I sighed, turning to face forward. "Swell," I muttered. Besides me Ron gasped., his hand reaching out to touch my elbow "What is it now?" I asked, facing the red-head again.

"Are you all right?" He leaned forward, gently rubbing his hand along the black and blue skin that made up my right elbow and parts of my right arm. Resting my hand on my hip so I could better examine the injury, I realized that my hip was bruised as well.

"Oh," I said, eyebrows raised. "Oops."

The door opened and Snape came into the room again, a bored look on his face. He took one look at me and all of my bra glory and rolled his eyes. That was when he caught my shoulder. The bruised colors may have blended well into the walls of the room, but they stood out in stark contrast to my white shirt.

He looked at my face, worry in his eyes before he looked back at my arm. I slipped my robe on, covering the discoloration and pulling him from his space-out. He shook his head and began the lesson.

* * *

We spent the whole period taking notes on antidotes to various poisons. Not the most exciting class in the world, but it seemed to me that Snape was slightly distracted. At the end of the lesson, he once again called me to his desk. Ron raised an eyebrow at me and I rolled my eyes.

The room cleared out, leaving me with the dreaded potions master. "You know, if you continue to keep me after class, people are going to start to think there's something going on between us."

He frowned at my quip, but said nothing. "Miss Nouvelli... is there something that you want to tell me?"

I blinked. "Define something."

Once again, he came around and leaned against the front of his desk. "Perhaps something has happened to you recently, something hurting you, but you think is harmless in the long run?"

I cocked my head to the side. "You think I'm on drugs?"

"What?"

I guess wizards don't have narcotics... "Never mind."

Snape sighed. "Well, if you're going to be difficult about it... Let me see your arm."

"_Excuse_ me?"

"Miss Nouvelli," he snapped, all the patience he'd stored up for me disappeared. "While I personally do not have a great love for you or your attitude, you are still my student, and therefore if you are being abused-"

"What!"

"-It is my duty to force you to get help," he finished.

My mouth dropped open in shock. Never mind that he was dead wrong, the fact that he was forcing himself to ask... Then again, if anything happened to 'the Ultimate Power,' Dumbledore would kill him. "Abused," I managed to croak out.

He nodded. "I understand that being in an abusive relationship might seem... right," he looked around, obviously uncomfortable with the situation. "But perhaps you should talk to someone. Professor McGonagall, or the headmaster, maybe."

I rolled my eyes. "Professor Severus," I said, causing him to scowl. "I'm not in an abusive relationship."

"I highly doubt-"

"I'm not in any relationship." I took my robe off so he could see the bruise, causing him to blink as my lacy bra once again made itself visible through my shirt. "I fell and dislocated my shoulder. Nothing else."

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Right now? Hell yeah," I snapped.

"You can't fall and dislocate your shoulder, and obtain that level of bruising," he sneered, taking a step closer to me.

"You can if you're ex-boyfriend throws you up in the air and doesn't catch you."

"Ah-ha!" He said, pointing to me in victory. "You are in an abusive relationship."

I shook my head in disgust. "No. I'm a dancer. And as I dancer, I have to say this bruising is pretty minor. You should've seen that concussion I got three years ago after doing an illusion on an uneven surface..."

His jaw clicked as he fought the urge to yell. "I don't believe you," he growled.

"Fine," I said smugly. "Go ask Dumbledore. He'll tell you I'm right."

A scowl worked it's way over his face before he snapped. "Get out," he hissed.

I rolled my eyes and left, letting him brood in peace.

* * *

The week continued to pass in an uneventful manor. I wrote Darcy and told her I was taking the week off due to a recommendation from my doctor, and said that I would be back next Wednesday.

Never mind the fact that I hadn't _been_ to a doctor...

Snape avoided me, glaring at me at every chance he could but never actually opening his mouth. To my surprise, Malfoy did the same. Oh sure, Harry told me he had heard the ferret talking about me behind my back, but to my face he never said anything. I think I had made an impression when I saved his ass in potions.

A few days before Halloween, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I made our way to the common room; Hermione bitching about elf rights on the way.

"They have nothing! Nothing! No sick days, no vacations... it's slavery! I can't believe it's still allowed. Why, if I was in charge..."

Harry, Ron, and I tolerated it, if only so she wouldn't badger us senseless about our lack of feeling. She got other people to join SPEW the same way, bugging them until they finally said yes just to shut her up.

We climbed through the portrait hole. "...Do you agree with that, Ron?"

Ron blinked, startled by her sudden question. "Uh, yeah. Definitely."

Her mouth dropped open. Wrong answer. "How could you! I can't believe you would be so selfish! You horrid..."

As Harry and Ron stayed behind and tried to placate their angry friend, I shook my head and went off to join Fred and George in a secluded corner of the common room. "... But that's blackmail! We can't do that."

"Who are you blackmailing," I asked, sitting down across from them. They blinked in surprise, looking back and forth between each other as if silently inquiring the other if they should answer. I chuckled. "Fine, don't tell me."

"Actually, perhaps you can help," Fred said slowly. "If we were to blackmail you, would you give in to our demands?"

I shrugged. "It depends on what you were blackmailing me with. If it was bad enough, I suppose I would." I cast them a curious look. "Is it bad enough?"

George sighed. "To us, maybe. But to him... probably not." He turned to his brother. "I told you it wouldn't work."

"Yes, well we have to try something! We can't just sit around doing nothing, you know..."

I left them and went up to my rooms. There was just too much useless drama downstairs for my tastes. And I'm from LA.

* * *

The anticipation was killing me.

There we stood on Halloween in neat little rows on the front lawn, waiting for the other schools to show up. We were all dressed our best, not a hair out of place. We had been instructed to stand silently... and that was starting to get old.

"When will this end," I whispered to Ron.

He shrugged. "When they get here, I suppose."

I snorted. "Don't they know that's it's rude to be late? I mean, what if we'd had dinner sitting out waiting for them and it was now getting cold?" He gave me a weird look but said nothing, because in that instant, someone spotted something flying through the sky.

I passed it off for a plane at first, but then Hermione burst my bubble, telling me that planes couldn't fly over Hogwarts.

Excited chatter rose through the group. On my other side, Hermione started babbling on about levitation charms. What soon revealed itself to be a giant carriage pulled by even bigger horses landed in front of us with a jerk, causing a few of the first years in the front to jump back in alarm.

Apparently, the laws of gravity don't apply to carriages pulled by flying horses.

From the carriage door came a giant woman. No joke. She was _huge_. Dumbledore smiled and stepped up to her. "Madame Maxime! How lovely!"

"Dumblydore," she cooed with a smile. "Zis is a beautiful castle."

"Please, go inside and warm up, Olympe." Dumbledore smiled. "Our gamekeeper will be along shortly to take care of your horses."

Maxime's eyebrow rose in disbelief. "Can he 'andle zem?"

"I assure you, Olympe. Hagrid is most definitely well-suited for the job," he said with a glint of amusement in his eye. A truer statement hadn't been spoken yet. After watching Hagrid wrestle with those skrewts, I had no doubt in my mind that he could handle the horses.

The giant lady ushered her students into the castle, and we were left alone to wait once more. As nice of an idea as the all-school-welcome is, I was beginning to regret my decision to skip dance rehearsal today to be here in the cold.

Suddenly, a ripple of water appeared on the lake. "What the..."

Ron turned his head to look at me and followed my gaze. "Look!" he yelled, pointing at the lake.

Our classmates turned in excitement to watch as a giant ship made its way from the depths of the water, emerging at an angle before flattening out.

Wicked.

* * *

"Can you believe it? Victor Krum, here, at Hogwarts," Ron's mouth was open in surprise as he looked around the room with an excited air.

"Who's Victor Krum," I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Just some famous Quidditch player," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes.

"How dare you," Ron said with a look of outrage on his pale face. "That's blasphemous! He's not just some famous Quidditch player! He's a legend! And he's here!"

"Someone has an obsession," Fred snickered.

"But-"

"Are you eating zat?"

Ron turned around to find a gorgeous girl with white-blond hair standing behind him, asking about some French food in front of him. Ron stared, his eyes wide. With a sigh, I reached over and handed the dish to her. "Take it," I said.

"Zank you," she said with a small smile, walking away.

Ron rounded on me. "Why'd you do that?"

"Because you were making a bloody fool of yourself, mate," Harry said with a laugh.

"She's part veela! I'm sure of it!"

I turned away. I didn't want to know.

"Attention! May I have your attention!" I turned to face the front of the room as Dumbledore stood. "I would like to introduce you to the five people who while be the judges during the Triwizard Tournament. Obviously, Madame Maxime, Headmaster Karkaroff, and I will take place in the judging. Joining us will be Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman, both members of the British Ministry of Magic."

The two men in question stood to wave. "Now then," Dumbledore said with a grin. "If you recall, each school will produce one champion to compete in the tournament. I'm sure you're all anxious to know how the champions will be selected."

We all cheered as McGonagall carried out a covered object. "All students at the age of seventeen will have twenty-four hours to submit their names to this." With a flourish, Dumbledore tore the cover off to reveal a chalice of some sort. "The goblet of fire."

* * *

Hey everybody! Sorry for the delay in the update, I was really focused on finishing my comedy/parody story 150 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do at Hogwarts, you guys should check it out!

Anyway, here's the next chapter... things are about to get really interesting... Tell me what you think and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and I'll just Love it!

Lurve till Fergie stops spelling things in her songs,

-Selene


	9. The Goblet

"Blimey! All that's going to be stopping the under-seventeens is an age line." Fred turned to his brother with an excited twinkle in his eye. We were leaving the Great Hall after dinner, heading back up to Gryffindor tower when the twins began plotting. "Reckon we can get across that?"

"It should be fairly simple," his brother agreed.

"Dumbledore will have thought ahead, you know," Hermione pointed out. "Whatever you're planning, it's not going to work."

"It will, Hermione."

"Just watch the masters-"

"We'll show you how it's done."

As the twins bantered with each other and Hermione about aging potions, Harry, Ron, and I pulled away; walking faster in an effort to get away from the argument. "So what do you two think," Ron asked. "Going to try to put your name in?"

"Absolutely not," I scoffed. I had no desire to advertise the limited magical skill I had managed to acquire over the past couple of months.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, you'd have to be mental to put your name in."

"That's Fred and George," Ron said darkly.

It was as we were laughing at this that Harry bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry," he said with a smile, looking up to see Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang.

Karkaroff tried to push past him. "Too right you are," he hissed, not even bothering to look at Harry. "Out of my way!

"Hey," I snapped, stepping forward to block his path. "Listen, buddy. I don't care if you _are _a professor; you're still a guest at Hogwarts, so don't treat the halls like your stomping grounds, and my friends like your students."

He glared down at me, a look of outrage on his face. "Who are you?"

I smirked. "The American chick that apparently has more manners than you do." Avery Nouvelli: breaking stereotypes everyday. Right. I looked him up and down. "And that's saying something."

His mouth dropped open in anger, but I never got to hear his response. "Nouvelli! Weasley! Potter! Stop taunting Karkaroff and get back to your common room," Moody shouted above the roar of students as they traveled past us.

Karkaroff's eyes immediately went to Harry, looking at him for the first time. "Potter? Harry Potter? Merlin's beard..."

"Yep," I said, grabbing Harry by the arm and dragging him towards the stairs. "See you!" It was bizarre to me that I would be so protective of Harry. Why was that? I'd just met the guy. Was I going soft? It scared me that I was opening up so much to people that two months ago were complete strangers, but I shook the thought off; I'd worry about it later, when I was alone.

We began climbing the stairs in silence, each of us alone with our thoughts until finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Well," I said quietly. "I now officially know what it's like to be a celebrity. And if people constantly stopping you and asking if you are who you are is what it's all about, than I'm glad to be the unknown friend that sits in the background."

Harry and Ron laughed as Fred, George, and Hermione finally caught up to us; the twins slipping their arms around my waist as we made our way through the corridors. I bit my lip, my earlier worries coming back to me, but in the end, I said nothing. For the first time in the two months I'd known them, I let Fred and George keep their arms around me.

* * *

The next morning, Fred and George proved Hermione correct.

"I told you it wouldn't work," she laughed as the twins made their way down the hall to the Hospital Wing to have their beards removed.

"Too bad nobody had a camera," I mused. "Pictures would have been useful to talk them out of it if they ever decide to grow beards. It's not a good look on them."

"I got pictures," the little Creevy kid said, holding up his camera.

I grinned, giving him a high-five. "All right!"

"I wonder when the Durmstrang lot is going to put all of their names in," Ron inquired. "Beauxbatons just did theirs, and Hogwarts students have been doing it all day-"

"All the people from Durmstrang put their names in last night," Hermione told him. "They've already been entered."

"That's what I would've done," Harry said with a shrug. "Less pressure."

"I thought you didn't want to enter," I said with a small smile.

"I don't!" Harry protested. "That's just what I would have done."

I felt a stirring then, a premonition coming on, but just before I could grab hold of it, it disappeared, leaving me wondering what would happen.

* * *

Excitement filtered through the Great Hall that night. The champions would soon be chosen, and the tournament would officially begin. Everyone was dying to find out who they would be rooting for, who the three competitors would be. After what seemed like a year of waiting, Dumbledore stepped forward.

The hall silenced itself immediately, everyone waiting with baited breath for the champions to be named. "In a moment, the goblet will choose the three champions. If your name is called out, you will proceed through the door to my right and wait for us there-"

He cut himself off, as all of a sudden, the goblet began to glow blue. The fire protruded from it, throwing a slip of parchment up into the air before it landed in Dumbledore's outstretched hand. "The champion," he said as we all held our breath. "For Durmstrang is... Victor Krum!"

The hall erupted into cheers as the tall, dark, and handsome teen made his way to the front of the room, shaking hands with Dumbledore before moving to the door. Some of the girls whistled as he passed, batting their eyelashes up at him.

"Of course he's the champion," Ron whispered excitedly to Harry. "He's Victor Krum!"

I hadn't realized the Bulgarian boy's name was a title.

The goblet suddenly glowed blue again, and without warning, another piece of paper was thrown into the air. "The champion for Beauxbatons," Dumbledore read. "Is Fleur Delacour!"

The girl Ron was smitten with from last night stood with a small smile on her face, walking gracefully to the front of the room. "Ron," Hermione whispered. "That's the girl you think is a veela!"

"I can see that," he snapped back. "Merlin, can I see that..."

Men.

Wasting no time, the goblet immediately turned blue once more, spitting out the name of the final champion. "The Hogwarts champion is..." Dumbledore paused dramatically. "Cedric Diggory."

A brunette boy stood from the Hufflepuff table, smiling in an ecstatic happiness. As he made his way through the door, Ron shrugged. "At least he's not a Slytherin."

"That's it," Dumbledore announced, sweeping his hands out in a wide gesture. "The three champions have now been chosen, and..."

He said more, but I didn't hear. I felt my eyes glaze over, my mind sharpening as the vision appeared before me...

_"How is zis possible?" Madame Maxime said, staring angrily at Dumbledore as she pointed off to her right. "He cannot compete. He is too young!"_

_Only then did I turn to see who she was talking about, to find Harry standing besides the other champions, shell-shocked about what was going on..._

The memory faded and my eyes went wide. "Oh my god," I hissed, looking wildly at Harry. But the boy was too busy staring in wonder at the goblet, which had once again begun to glow blue...

"I know," he muttered. "I wonder what's happening."

"Harry-"

A piece of parchment shot out of the goblet, and I knew I was too late. I knew there was nothing I could do, that Harry would be forced to compete against his will. I remembered the dream I had near the beginning of the year...

_"Why are you complaining about this, Igor?"_

_"Why wouldn't I be! This isn't fair. A fourth champion..."_

_"If anyone has the right to complain," that familiar, voice said. "It's the boy. And you don't hear a word out of him, do you?"_

_"He'll have to compete," a new voice said quietly._

His name was read by Dumbledore, and the hall grew silent. "Harry Potter."

* * *

"I can't believe it! What's going to happen? How can Dumbledore allow this?"

I currently sat in the fourth year Gryffindor girl dorm room with a pacing Hermione; Lavender and Parvati downstairs with the rest of our house as they celebrated Harry's newfound champion-ness, apparently deeming it a good thing despite the fact that he was completely baffled by the new development.

"He'll be forced to compete," I told her. "Maxime and Karkaroff will be furious, but in the end Harry won't have a choice."

Hermione stopped pacing, looking at me in confusion. "How do you know this?"

I blinked. Crap, did I just give something away? "I don't know," I said with a shrug. "I'm just guessing."

"You've said things like this before," Hermione pointed out, sitting next to me with wide eyes. "Like when you were talking about how useless Trelawny's class was in reality... How would you know that?"

I bit my lip, torn. I had come to trust Hermione, to like her even, though I wouldn't call her a good friend yet. There was something about Hermione that drew me to her and let me know that she was a good person. I didn't want to lie to her, but at the same time, I knew I couldn't tell her the complete truth. So I thought a half-lie would be the best compromise.

I took a deep breath, pretending to let all of my walls down, as if I was revealing a deep, dark secret. "If I tell you something," I said quietly. "Do you promise to keep quiet about it?"

She hesitated before nodding her consent. "Yes," she whispered.

"I'm not entirely a late bloomer," I said, avoiding her face. "I... I can see the future."

Her eyes widened and she caught my gaze. "What? You mean... you're a seer?"

I pulled a face. "Is _that_ what they call it?" Talk about uncreative. All of a sudden, she hit me on the arm, smacking me with her pillow. "Hey," I exclaimed. "What the hell was that for?"

"You knew what was going to happen, and you didn't warn us?" Her eyes blazed in furry. "How could you?"

I scoffed. "Please. In the premonition, they were throwing words around that I didn't understand. Besides, I didn't actually see who was in the room, I just overheard the conversation."

"Anything else," Hermione asked, grabbing me by the shoulders. "Is there anything else I should know?"

I shook my head, leaving the whole I-might-be-the-Ultimate-Power thing out. "But I'll let you know if that changes."

* * *

Sunday morning, I walked down to the Great Hall with Fred and George on either side of me. Ron was sitting by himself in the middle of the table, an annoyed look upon his face as he stared sullenly into his bowl of porridge.

"Hey," I said as I slid into the seat next to him. Fred and George climbed onto the bench across from us. "Where's Harry?" The two boys were hardly ever seen without each other.

"Harry's probably off posing for a photograph or something," he sneered, bringing his angered expression to peer at my face.

I rolled my eyes, reaching for the coffee pot that sat on the table in front of us before pouring myself a cup. It had taken me weeks, but eventually I had managed to convince Fred and George to sneak down into the kitchens and persuade the house-elves to start making coffee in the morning. So far, the pot only appeared in front of me, but recently Harry had taken to drinking some too. Everyone else preferred tea in the morning.

Weird-O's.

"Naw, he wouldn't pose. He knows candid shots sell better," I joked. "He'll probably just wander the halls and hope someone would take his picture without his permission." This got no response from the red-head besides me. I sighed. "I was kidding, you know."

"He does. Ickle Ronny is jealous," George said with a grin.

"Stop that! I am not!"

"Then what's your damage," I asked, taking a sip.

He blinked in confusion. "I beg your pardon?"

I sighed. I had been living in England for over two months, and these people had yet to learn my language. It was quite sad, if you think about it. "What's wrong?"

"He didn't tell me," Ron growled, throwing his hands up and accidentally hitting a first year in the face. "Oh, sorry." He turned back to the three of us. "He just let me believe he hadn't put his name in-"

"But... He hadn't put his name in," I pointed out.

Ron shook his head. "You don't know him."

"Obviously you don't know him either," Fred snorted. "Since when has Harry ever sought attention?"

"So you believe him then, do you?"

"Uh, yes." I rolled my eyes again. Ron definitely had trust issues...

"Fine!" He snapped, jumping out of his seat as he hurried for the door. He darted through them quickly, avoiding a crowd of Beauxbatons girls as he ran from us. Somehow, I didn't think Ron and Harry would be having a heart-to-heart anytime soon.

I didn't need my premonitions to know that.

* * *

Things were going bad for Harry, and they were getting progressively worse as the days wore on. People were mocking him and not speaking to him for stealing the Hufflepuff glory. Ron still refused to talk to him, despite both Hermione's and my attempts to reconnect the two. As for my life, things weren't going too bad for me, but I was absolutely dreading Wednesday.

I had no desire to see Tyler after last Wednesday's mishap, but I knew I couldn't put off rehearsal any longer, not with competition approaching. Ty and I also needed to start working on our duo; so the sooner we saw each other, the better.

Tuesday in school, we leaned the summoning charms; and just as I had predicted, I had great difficulty with it. Harry did as well, but while he sat around and hoped to figure it out, I practiced for hours on end with Hermione, and figured out how to do it by the next day.

That Wednesday, the day Friction would meet again, Hermione, Harry, and I went down into the dungeons together, passing the Slytherins on the way. "Hey Potter," Malfoy sneered. "Like the badges?"

I looked at his shirt to see the plastic signs that all of the Slytherins had clipped to their shirts saying: _Support Cedric Diggory: The Real Hogwarts Champion._

How cute.

Malfoy laughed as the three of us continued to walk past, paying no mind to what he was saying. "That's not all they can do!" Suddenly, the badges morphed:_Potter Stinks!_

Clever.

Harry growled, pulling his wand out. "You want to have a go, Malfoy?"

Malfoy pulled his out as well, a look of smug satisfaction upon his face. "Why not?"

I could tell that Malfoy was trying to engage Harry in some sort of battle, and I knew that I needed to defuse the tension, asap. I stepped forward, attempting to stop the fight. "Was that the best you could do, Malfoy? That Harry _stinks?_ What are you, in the third grade?"

"The third..." He trailed off, confusion written across his face. "What kind of muggle nonsense is that?"

"Actually," Hermione piped up. "It's American muggle nonsense. British muggles don't have a third grade."

I stared at Hermione incredulously. "Thanks for backing me up."

"Nobody cares what you think, Mudblood," Malfoy sneered at Hermione, drawing his wand.

Harry gasped, apparently taking offense to Malfoy's insult, and he waved his wand. "Oh no you don't, Malfoy!" Both boys simultaneously shot spells at each other... and both of them missed.

Right, well if their aim is that bad, than neither of them should be surgeons. I can just imagine it now... 'Alright, I'm going to cut the tumor out... Crap! That was his kidney.'

Harry's spell hit one of Malfoy's goons, and Ferret Boy's hit Hermione, causing the bookworm to double over, her hands on her mouth. "Hermione," Ron called, rushing over from his spot by the door. "Hermione, are you all right?"

"What," a dangerously silky voice spoke. "Is going on here?"

"Potter attacked me, sir!" Malfoy whined.

"He attacked me too-"

"Detention, Potter," Snape said with a glimmer of triumph in his eye. "Mr. Malfoy, please escort Crabbe to the Hospital Wing."

"Professor," I spoke up. "Hermione got hit too." I grabbed her wrist, pulling her forward. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, coaxing her to remove her hand. After a moment's pause, she pulled her hand away... to show that her teeth had grown past her chin and all the way down to the base of her neck.

Ugh.

As the class burst into laughter, Snape looked at her coldly before saying, "There is no difference."

Tears welled up in the strong girl's eyes as she ran from the class, passing her jeering classmates as fast as she could. Harry and Ron immediately began to orally curse at the Professor (a talent they probably got from me), but he quickly silenced them. "That's enough!" He opened his mouth, but I cut him off.

"No wonder you aren't married," I said with a smirk, nodding towards his ringless finger. "Who would want to be with a heartless bastard like you?"

I then hurried off after Hermione, knowing she needed me more than Snape did.

* * *

I met Tyler at his house that night at our usual time to find him sitting in the living room, a pot of coffee on the side table next to him. I stared at him in confusion, wondering why he wasn't waiting for me by the door like he always was. I was even more baffled by the fact that he had coffee with him, seeing as that's never the best thing to drink before rehearsal...

After a long moment, he finally broke the silence. "Hi."

That's it? Hi? After everything we've gone through in the past two months? After be lied to me? After he didn't catch me... I rolled my eyes, stepping away from the fireplace. "We should go," I said, heading towards his garage.

Suddenly, I felt his hand on my wrist. I looked up in surprise, meeting his eyes. "We need to talk."

"We need to go," I said, pulling away from him. "Darcy will kill us if we aren't there on time."

He shook his head. "I told Darcy we had school stuff; that we would be late."

I paused, not really knowing what to do from there. It wasn't like I could protest, seeing as we were pretending to go to the same school, and we _did_ have to talk... With a sigh, I pointed to the coffee pot. "That's not decaf, is it?" In answer, Ty grabbed the pot and poured me a cup, handing it over gently. "Okay," I said finally, sitting down. "Let's talk."

It took him a minute to find the words. His eyes probed the ground as I waited to hear what he had to say. Despite the silence that surged around us, I was content to just drink my coffee, letting him begin when he was ready. After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke. "How's your shoulder?"

I blinked. "Oh. Uh, it's fine."

He sighed, apparently deciding enough small talk had been made. "Listen, Avery... I wanted to apologize."

I waved it away. "It's okay. You didn't mean to drop me," I said, knowing the words to be true as I said them. Tyler may hold a grudge, he may be a gossip, and he may have his dishonest moments. But he would never purposefully inflict harm on anyone.

To my surprise, he shook his head. "That's not what I'm sorry for." He paused. "Well, I _am _sorry for that." He reached over and grabbed my left hand as I took another sip of coffee. "I'm sorry I've been so cruel lately." He looked down at the ground, not meeting my eyes. "You know how much I like you, and I was taking my anger of our break-up out on you."

I smiled softly. "Ty-"

"No, let me finish." Finally, he brought his eyes up to meet mine. "I'm sorry I lied to you, Avery. I know that it hurt you, that you don't trust me... I was afraid. And then you dumped me and I was mad... I'm getting over it. Slowly but surely, I'm mending my heart. I just... I wish we could be friends, you know?"

If he had told me this a few weeks ago, I might have been angry, upset even that he was getting over me while I still liked him. But a part of me was relieved that he was trying to move on. I realized that a part of me already _had _moved on, and that going back to him, no matter what I felt, would be a giant step in the wrong direction.

I had been so worried that we would never move past our break-up. That it would always be date or die, so to speak. But as I sat there conversing with him about his feelings of all things, I was glad to know it wasn't like that. "I can't trust you yet, Ty. Maybe one day, I'll be able to again. But not now. However, as to starting over..." I smiled at him, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "I'd like that," I whispered.

He smiled back at me, and I knew that everything would be alright.

* * *

It turns out that Harry had been pulled out of the potions class that I had missed to do interviews and some special ceremony. I knew this because the day after Ty and I began to mend our relationship, Rita Skeeter's article came out.

"You two are in love? I had no idea." I smirked at Harry and Hermione one morning during breakfast.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's rubbish, and we all know it."

Hermione and I had been getting along exceptionally well ever since I chased after her during Snape's class. Where we once fought about homework and study methods, we had learned to tolerate each other and to agree to disagree on the matter.

Then again, who knew how long this 'truce' would last...

"But you two make such a cute couple," I said drily. Harry opened his mouth to retort, but quickly shut it again as he stared behind me with wide eyes. "What," I asked, turning in my seat. There stood stony-faced Severus Snape, his eyes as angry as ever. "Oh. It's you."

He sneered at me. "Miss Nouvelli. You will report to the dungeons tonight at seven for a detention due to your truancy. Do I make myself clear?"

I sighed. Well there goes my Thursday night. "Crystal."

* * *

"Harry, you and Ron have to make up eventually. It might as well be sooner rather than later," Hermione pleaded.

"No," Harry said stubbornly. "I have nothing to apologize for."

Hermione and I exchanged weary looks. The two of us had been trying to get Harry and Ron to make up for weeks now, and this little song and dance they had us doing was beginning to get old. There was only so much patience I had stored up for stupid friend fights.

"Look," I said forcefully. "Just talk to the guy. You can't ignore him forever."

He opened his mouth, his eyes set in determination, but before he could get a word out, a gaggle of girls came in. Their giggling and pointing was directed at one Mr. Victor Krum. The Bulgarian star was sitting at one of the library tables, studying with a friend as he was stalked.

I guess he was used to it by now.

Hermione frowned. "Look at them. How is anyone supposed to get any work down? Come on," she said standing up suddenly. "Let's leave dear old Krum and his fangirls in peace."

Harry got up with her, but I stayed put. "You guys go on," I said, waving them away. "I have to do a paper for McGonagall. Something to uh, catch me up." I raised an eyebrow so they would understand I was doing remedial work.

It wasn't long before I was alone again, the two-foot long paper I was supposed to be writing taking forever for me to finish. It didn't help that everyone used quills here, and that the teachers had requested that I comply as well, but I had given up the dark-age practice and resorted to a ball-point pen.

I was tempted to type the paper, but somehow I didn't think McGonagall would approve.

"Hello."

I looked up, startled to see Victor's study mate, one of the Durmstrang men sitting down besides me, a smile tracing its way across his light lips. "I am Alejandros." He stretched his right arm out towards me. "And you are?"

"Avery," I said, politely shaking his hand.

"Vhere did your friend go," he asked me, head cocked to the side. "The vone with the bushy hair?"

I smirked. She so needed to condition. Though it bugged me that I was approached to talk about another girl, I knew that it wasn't everyday people came asking after Hermione. "Hermione? She left with Harry."

"Ah," he said, nodding to himself. "They are together, then?"

I laughed out loud at the hilarious notion. "No! They're just friends." I leaned in closer, as if I was telling him some big secret. "Truth be told, they left because the star's posse is too much like a paparazzi."

He blinked. "Vhat?"

I sighed. Maybe I should just learn how to speak British. It'd probably be easier for me in the long run if people knew what I was saying. "The teenage girls following him are annoying," I said, pointing toward the crowd of laughing girls.

A knowing look came over his face. "Ah. Perhaps Victor vill not come here as much, then. He vill find her some other time." He raised his eyebrows and I caught his meaning. So the Quidditch star was after Hermione, and Krum had sent one of his friends to play Cupid with one of her friends... "But," Alejandros continued. "Perhaps, I vill still see you here?"

I smiled, tilting my head to the side. "Yes," I said finally. "Perhaps you will."

* * *

Detention.

I was surprised that I had made it almost three months at Hogwarts without getting in trouble, but by some miracle it had happened. Snape's punishment was sure to be severe if his attitude was anything to go by, and I was not looking forward to it at all.

"Enter," he called coldly through the door as I knocked.

I stepped into his room, my head held high as I looked confidently into his eyes. I approached him without any fear. No matter how bad this detention would be, I would not break.

"Miss Nouvelli," he said sternly, glaring at me from behind his desk. "Do you care to explain your need to call me a, ah, what was it?"

"Heartless bastard," I supplied with a smirk on my face.

He snapped at me. "Yes. That."

I shrugged. "No offense Professor Severus." He growled. "But you are one. There was a teenage girl showing emotional weakness and you tore her down... You were kind of an asshole."

He slammed his hands down on his desk. "Detention for a week!" he yelled. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. What good was it asking a question if he didn't want to hear the answer? Reaching into one of his drawers, he pulled out a bound leather book. He tossed it to me. "For your detention, you will be dictating a potion to me. Yes," he said as I blinked. That was it? "But you surprisingly know what you're doing, and therefore, I can trust that you won't mess up your words like some of the other dunderheads at this school as I brew."

"Uh, okay."

He walked over to his cauldron. "This is a very complex potion, and I don't have time to look at the instructions. I hesitate a moment too long and that could mean disaster. Do I make myself clear?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Look, can we start? I have some reading I need to catch up on."

He sneered. "Are you still muddling through all of your first year books?"

To his surprise, I shook my head. "Nope. I've only got History of Magic to go for first year, but that could be because it is so freaking boring."

He blinked, shocked that I was farther ahead then he had anticipated. "What have you read?"

"Well, I'm completely caught up in Divination," I scoffed at the thought. "The entire book is useless," I confided. "Not a shred of fact in the whole thing. I'm still making my way through Care of Magical Creatures, but that's one of those classes where if you stay out of the way, you'll be alright."

He snorted. "It is if you have that buffoon Hagrid teaching you."

I frowned but continued on. "Other then those, I've read all of the first year books, and half of the second year one for potions." I looked him in the eye as I walked past, my haughty air standing out. "Perhaps because I have a supposed talent for it."

I sensed him turn around, surprise on his face as I set the book down and prepared for my detention.

* * *

Woohoo, I updated, and it only took a week, lol (and it's 4500 words!)! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, the beginning is showing how she is becoming more at home at Hogwarts (ex- she high-fived Collin where in previous chapters she had threatened to wring his neck), and that she's letting her guard down.

I probably won't post again until August, but that's because I'm going out of town next week and will have to hand-write a lot of the next chapter... but I swear I won't leave you guys hanging for too long!

Please do me a favor and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and I Love it!

Lurve,

-Selene


	10. The Dragons

My premiere trip to Hogsmeade took place a few days before the first task. I thought it was awesome that the older students were able to run around a town all day once every couple of months. Harry and Hermione accompanied me, though Harry was wearing a cloak that made him invisible.

Why, I _still _wasn't sure of.

"Would you just take that thing off," I muttered in the general direction he had previously been in. "You have no need to be in hiding."

"Everyone thinks I'm the horrible person who stole Cedric's glory," Harry whispered from my left. I turned my head sharply to face him. "I don't want to run into any negative feedback."

"Then you shouldn't have come. And could you at least walk in a straight line? I'm getting whiplash from trying to keep up with where you are," I snapped.

"Still," Hermione said thoughtfully as we approached a building called _The Three Broomsticks_. "I imagine I would look quite ridiculous if I were here alone with Harry. I'm glad you're with me, Avery."

"No prob." I grinned as we stepped into the pub. Yes, that's right. In the wizarding world, teenagers could go to pubs. The dank atmosphere made it a minute before my eyes adjusted. The room was crowded; Hogwarts students and villagers alike wandering through the building. Ron was sitting at a table with Fred and George. I waved at the twins, and they simultaneously blew me a kiss back. I rolled my eyes, but grinned at the harmless flirtation anyway. I knew that part of the reason they were always teasing me was because they knew nothing would ever come from it, that I'd only just tease them back.

"So this is the infamous Three Broomsticks?" I asked with a smirk. "Well it certainly has some charm to it."

"Wait until we get you a butterbeer," Harry said quietly from under his cloak as we slid into a booth. "They're brilliant."

"Wizarding alcohol," I smiled as Hermione went straight to the counter to get our orders. "This I've got to see." Hogsmeade had already been one huge surprise to me. I had figured it would be something like Diagon Alley: a bank, some stores, maybe an ice cream shop.

I was wrong.

Hogsmeade was catered more towards the students of Hogwarts. I supposed that was why the names were so similar... The village had its own joke shop, a sweet shop, hell it even had a haunted house. Hermione and the invisible Harry showed me all of the town, giving me the grand tour before they decided to call it a day, ending in the pub for some must-have liquor.

Suddenly, Hagrid and Moody stepped up to our table. "All right there, Avery," Hagrid said loudly.

I blinked. "Hagrid. I'm right here. You don't need to shout."

He grinned sheepishly. "Right. Sorry 'bout that." He looked quickly in Harry's direction, and I understood. He somehow knew that Boy Wonder was under the cloak, and he was using me as a cover to converse with him.

"No problem," I said as Hermione slid back into her seat, passing me a butterbeer and slipping one under the cloak to Harry.

"Professors," she said with a small smile, staring in question at Moody.

It took me a second, but I finally figured it out. "Oh," I said quietly. "Your eye..." So _that_ was how he had seen Harry.

Moody smiled his crooked smile at me. "Right you are, Miss Nouvelli."

"Alright then," Hagrid said at a high volume, standing up straight. "We should be going, Alastair. See you Hermione, Avery."

As the two nutty professors headed awkwardly out of the room, Hermione leaned to Harry. "What did Hagrid want?"

Harry sighed. "He says he has something to show me. Tonight. At his place. Right before my meeting with..." he trailed off, as if he were unsure if he should say much more in front of me.

I rolled my eyes, grabbing the bottle of butterbeer in my hand. "Don't mind me. I'll just distract myself with my drink." I took a swig of the stuff, and the warm liquid coursed down my throat.

"Well?" Harry asked, his problem (whatever it may be) forgotten for now. "What do you think?"

I tilted my head to the side, contemplating. "It's good. Very good. Warm... like someone spiked my cup of coffee with a drop of vodka." I shook my head. "But that's just it. A _drop_ of vodka. Butterbeer's not very high in alcohol content is it? Do they have anything stronger?"

* * *

That night, I had rehearsal again with Friction. Tyler and I had been getting along much better due to our heart to heart. During the drive from his house to the studio, I even told him about the tournament. Apparently, it was such a big deal that even the American schools were paying attention.

And if you know something about us Americans, you'll know that it takes a lot for us to focus.

"No way! No freaking way!" Tyler yelped, surprising the hell out of me. "You're friends with Harry Potter? _The _Harry Potter? Vanquisher-of-the-Dark-Lord-Triwizard-Champion-Dumbledore's-Pet Harry Potter?"

I scoffed. "That's a long title."

"Why didn't you mention this before?"

I blinked. "Are you serious?" Why _would_ I have told him? We weren't exactly talking.

Tyler smiled sheepishly at me as he pulled into the parking lot. "Oh yeah." He put the car in park and turned to me. "You _have _to keep me updated, Avery. I mean it, I want to know _everything_ that's going on."

I rolled my eyes. "You are such a gossip," I teased before he made me promise to do it.

* * *

Hours later, I climbed out of the Gryffindor fireplace sweaty, happy, and tired. While I was aware of sexual implications that had, I couldn't squash the blissful feeling that came over me due to a great rehearsal. Tyler and I had almost perfected the lift, and our duo was making much progress. Things were going great.

And then I saw them.

Facing off before me were Harry and Ron; both boy's fists clenched in anger as they stared disbelievingly at me. "Where were you?" Harry asked, giving me a wide-eyed stare.

I shrugged. "No where too important." I stepped forward, pulling my red and black dance bag tighter across my chest as I brushed the soot and ash from my clothes. "What's going on? You two haven't made up have you? Don't tell me I missed the cheerful moment."

Without another word, Ron turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, going up the stairs and to the boy's dormitory. A pause... And then the slam of a door.

Well I guess I was wrong.

I rolled my eyes and looked back at Harry. "Well," I said, quirking an eyebrow. "What's up?"

But the Boy Who Was Famous For Not Dying just stared at me, stark fear on his aged face as if he didn't know what on earth to do next.

* * *

"Dragons! What the _hell_ were they thinking?" I muttered to myself. "Did they _want _the champions to get killed? Are they looking forward to the barbecue? Was death something they relished in?"

It was the next day, and Hermione, Harry, and I were spending the afternoon researching ways to get past dragons. When Harry had told me the night before that Hagrid had more or less shown him what the first task was, I hadn't fully grasped the extent of the problem.

"Dragons," I had asked, my eyes growing wide. "They really exist?"

Now that I was actually reading about the dangers of said creatures, I realized just how screwed our fourth champion really was. These things were vicious animals that made grizzly bears look tame.

"I hope Dumbledore doesn't want me to die," Harry said with a shake of his head. "To think; I survived a direct attack from Voldemort not once but three times, and then expired because some malicious wizard wanted me burnt to a crisp via dragon."

"It does seem like an overly ambitious way for someone to plan to off you," I agreed. "I'm sure slitting your throat at night would have been much easier."

"But a lot messier," Harry pointed out with a laugh. It wasn't really a joking matter, but Harry had adopted the same life motto that I had: Better to joke around about something than to spend all your time worrying.

Hermione reappeared from the stack of books she had been browsing in. She carried with her five or six tomes, each about the size of a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. With a slam, she put them down on the table. "All right," she said briskly. "I've got some more books, although most of these will probably pertain more to the _care_ of dragons and not the way to defeat them."

"Merlin, I hope I just have to get past one, not _defeat _it," Harry muttered, reaching for one of Hermione's volumes.

I was still staring at the brunette in awe. "Who would have thought a bookworm like you would be so strong?"

She blinked at me. "I beg your pardon?"

"You _easily_ carried those over here... What can you bench press?"

"I... What?" She asked, thoroughly confused.

"Have you ever considered taking up break dancing," I inquired sincerely as Harry looked on in amusement. "Because you've got the muscles for it."

"I-"

She was interrupted though as someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Avery. Can I haf a vord?"

Turning around, I looked into the sincere brown eyes of Alejandros. "Oh hey!" I said, surprised to see him here. "Sure." I got up, giving the startled Harry and Hermione a reassuring glance. God, I was going to have some questions to answer later... "I'll be right back."

I followed Alejandros off into one of the rows of books, keeping pace with him easily. He eventually stopped and turned to face me. "Does Harry know about the dragons?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Well you don't beat around the bush at all."

He rolled his eyes. "Just vanted to make sure. Karkaroff told Victor this morning."

"How noble of you," I said drily.

"You are excited for the first task?" he asked, the question apparent in his voice despite the phrasing.

I shrugged. "As long as nobody dies it should be good."

He laughed, his loud chuckle filling up the room. "Vell then I should let you get back to 'elping Harry." He reached out and grabbed a strand of my hair, twirling it lightly around his finger. "But I vill see you at the task, no?"

Alejandros seemed like a great guy, and he most definitely was interested in me. And to my surprise, I found that I was just as interested in him. The culture shock ensured that our relationship would never be more than a shallow fling, but it didn't hurt to give it a try, right? Perhaps it was because enough time had elapsed since I became single again, or maybe because Ty and I were finally speaking civilly once more, but I found myself wanting to find out.

In answer, I smiled coyly and pulled away from him, turning around to walk away as I said over my shoulder, "We'll see." I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, even as I sat down again with Harry and Hermione.

* * *

"So," Hermione said slowly, her timidness making itself apparent by her hesitant tone. "What's going on with you and that boy from Durmstrang?" It was the day before the first task, and the two of us were sitting in the library, trying desperately to find some answer... well, at least we were before Hermione distracted us.

I chuckled lightly to myself. "I hadn't pegged you for a gossip girl."

Her eyes widened. "I'm not! It's just..." she bit her lip, seemingly unsure as to where to go with this. "You do know he's a Durmstrang seventh year, right? That means he's _at least_ seventeen. Actually, if his birthday is early enough, he may even be eighteen."

I made a face. "Thanks Polly Prude, but in case you've forgotten, I'm almost sixteen. That's not that big of an age difference."

Hermione still looked a little worried. "If you're sure..."

"Hermione! Hermione, there you are," Harry whispered loudly as he raced into sight, panting for breath upon reaching our table.

"Whoa Speed Racer, slow down," I said, raising an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"Avery! It's a good thing you're here, you can help too! I need to learn how to do a summoning charm. Correctly. By tomorrow."

* * *

"I can't believe you waited until the last minute to learn this," I grumbled, leaning back against the wall for what was sure to be a long wait.

The three of us were currently occupying an abandoned classroom, one that probably hadn't been used for anything but a make out spot for _years_ if the layer of dust we found was any indication. Hermione and I stood on one side of the room holding books as we attempted to do the impossible: coach Harry on how to do the Summoning Charm.

"While I do agree with you, Avery, in that this is, in fact, entirely last minute, you're running commentary isn't helping," she snapped. I rolled my eyes as she brought her attention back to Harry again. "You have to focus. You can do this."

"Use the force, Luke," I smirked.

"Stop it! This isn't funny!"

"All right already! Would you relax?" Turning to the boy in question, I sighed and looked him straight in the eye. "Listen," I said seriously, for once not making a joke out of anything. "You _can_ do this. You _will_ do this. You'll get it time. I know it."

That wasn't necessarily true. I had experienced no visions leading me to believe that he wouldn't die during the first task because he would learn to produce the summoning charm...

Until after my pep talk.

Seconds after he received my advice, my sight clouded over as I saw him flying on a broomstick, high above everyone else as the dragon's fire barely missed him, the school cheering him on as if they hadn't just been shunning him mere hours ago.

My head cleared and I reentered reality. While it was good that I still had a chance to be a motivational speaker when I grew up (because my pep talk had clearly effected him somehow) and I was glad that Harry wasn't going to die, I was slightly annoyed that I wouldn't be surprised about tomorrow's outcome.

That's the one thing that sucks about premonitions. The spoilers.

* * *

It had taken Harry a few more hours to perfect the charm, but he eventually got it down. True, it would be a lot harder during the actual task when the object he was summoning was so much farther away, but we were trying to avoid thinking about that. As we sat together at breakfast the morning of the first task, I could tell he was full of nervous energy.

"You need to eat," I said, nudging a bowl of oatmeal towards him.

"I'm not hungry," he replied, taking a huge sip of his coffee.

I made a face. "I never thought I'd say this, but put the coffee down." I grabbed the pot and moved it away from him. "You're too full of energy already, any more caffeine and your nervous system is going to explode."

"Mister Potter," a voice from behind us suddenly said. "Come with me, please."

He stood up, looking slightly green around the gills as he followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall. The solemn look on our teacher's face didn't do much to instill confidence. "You'll do fine," Hermione called out to him. "Just focus!"

The door shut behind him, leaving Hermione and I alone with our thoughts. The rest of the Great Hall continued to chatter amiably, but Hermione and I could do no such thing. As students painted their faces like they would for a football game, took bets from Fred and George, and ate their fill in preparation for an exciting day, the two of us sat in nervous anticipation, before I finally pulled the plug.

"This is stupid," I said at last. "We aren't eating anything. Let's go down." Hermione easily complied, standing swiftly to follow me out of the hall.

I never thought that I would grow as close to these people over such a short time period as I had. Here I was, having been at Hogwarts for almost three months, and I found myself thinking of Hermione as a good friend. Fred and George were hilarious and always good for a laugh; Ginny was the person to go to if you wanted the factual version of gossip; and Ron was a perfect distraction for avoiding homework.

And Harry, oh Harry!

While I was pretty sure of the outcome of the task in terms of him, I was still scared to death! The future isn't set in stone, and if something were to happen... If he were to make a decision to change the course of the future and thereby get him hurt... I had decided that I was going to keep my extra perception wide open, just in case I needed to use my shadow form to become a distraction. I could travel pretty quickly while I was a shadow, and so it wasn't my safety that I worried for, but Harry's.

It didn't take long for the rest of the school to follow us out into the stadium. The tent the champions were residing in was across the way, and I could see fire popping up from just beyond it. I frowned to myself. The dragons.

Hermione and I took our seats, silence still between us. It was soon broken, however, as we were joined. "May I sit vith you?"

I looked up to see Alejandros standing next to me. I smiled. "Of course," I said, my leg bouncing up and down in nervous anticipation.

He smiled anxiously at me, his eyes tight. "You are vorried too?"

I rolled my eyes. "Me? Never."

"Hello Avery. Hello Hermione." I turned around in my seat as Fred, George, and Ron sat down behind us. "You all set for the task?" Fred asked, grinning determinedly. "Don't worry, everything is going to be fine." Suddenly, he tilted his head, looking at my Bulgarian pal. "And who might you be?"

"Alejandros Dachev," he said, holding a hand out to one of the twins. "And you are?"

"Fred Weasley. This is my brother George, and this is Ron." He shook Alejandros' hand, the strain showing from his muscles let me know of the death grip he had Alejandros' hand in. "We're Avery's mates."

George piped up. "Really good mates, actually."

I quirked an eyebrow in amusement. Despite my worry, I couldn't help but be entertained by the fact that Fred and George were now apparently my best friends. Alejandros just nodded. "Of course."

Suddenly, Hermione shushed us. "It's starting!" she said, pointing to the judging booth that stood off to one side as Bagman magnified his voice, his wand pressed to his vocal box.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Students and spectators! Welcome... to the first task!" The stadium erupted into cheers as everyone stood in celebration. After a moment of raucous cheering, Bagman waved his hand and everyone quieted down. "Now the first task is simple: All the champions have to do is... collect a golden egg!"

Mummers rose up in the crowd as everyone contemplated this. That was it? Just pick out a gold egg amongst a pile of regular ones? Any idiot could do that. Once again, Bagman silenced everyone. "But to get the golden egg," Bagman warned. "They will have to get past... a dragon!"

Right on cue, a huge blue-grey dragon was led into the stadium, a fireball flying from its mouth as it went. Wizards surrounded it from all sides, their wands pointed at the beastly thing. The crowd went nuts; the students immediately on their feet as they cheered for their champions.

A possible death was apparently very entertaining.

"Bloody hell," Ron whimpered from behind us. I turned around to gaze at him. "Harry has to get past _that?_"

I raised an eyebrow. "You still think he put his name in?"

Bagman spoke again as I faced the stadium once more. "Each champion will be facing a different dragon-"

"Well that's good," Hermione whispered to me. "There's a learning curve to this... one that's to the dragon's advantage."

"-And first up from Hogwarts," Bagman continued. "You know him, you love him, it's your very own... Cedric Diggory!"

Hermione and I let out anxious breaths as the Hufflepuff boy walked cautiously into the stadium, his wand at the ready. We were both relieved that this insane match wouldn't start off with Harry.

The brunette strolled around the edge of the stadium, the wary dragon keeping an eye on him. Cedric took a step towards the beast... and he was attacked. The dragon rose up, waving one of it's claws at the boy as he jumped back to avoid being hit.

The crowd gasped, Bagman making some ridiculous comment as Cedric backed up to the safety of the side. With a confidence that I wasn't sure was very wise for him to be feeling, Cedric raised his wand and silently cast a spell...

"Whoa," Hermione muttered from next to me.

Cedric had done a rather complex form of transfiguration, morphing a rock on the ground into a big black lab. Cedric patted the dog on the head... before sending it off to the dragon. "You've got to be kidding me," I whispered in disbelief. "That's so malicious."

The dragon took the bait, lunging for the dog as Cedric slipped around behind it. The Hufflepuff stole away from the beast, closer and closer to the golden egg...

And then the dragon changed his mind.

The lab no longer held any appeal for the dragon, apparently. Instead, the dragon turned, fire coming from it's mouth as Cedric clamped his hands around the egg, the fire catching the left side of his body.

My eyes widened in horror. Oh my god... I may not have known Cedric very well, but that didn't mean I wanted anything to happen to the poor boy! I searched into the future. Surely... Surely he would be alright? I saw him getting treated by Madam Pomfrey, the mediwitch expertly mending his wounds.

I breathed a sigh of relief. He would be fine. Next to me, Hermione shut her eyes tightly. "I can't look!" she said. "Oh, Merlin! This is going to be Harry, I know it is!"

"Don't worry, Hermione," I said, turning my face towards the worried brunette. The wizards came onto the field again, subduing the dragon as the next one was brought in. "You can look. Cedric's going to be fine. And Harry's got a solid plan; he won't become barbecue."

Hermione's eyes flew open, wide with surprise as Cedric got his scores. "How did you know what I was thinking about?"

I blinked. "Thinking about... What the hell are you talking about? You just said that you couldn't look..."

I trailed off because Hermione was shaking her head, her bushy brown hair hitting her cheeks hard from the force with which she moved her cranium. "No, I didn't," she said curiously. "But I was thinking it."

What the hell?

I turned away from her, surprised by this sudden development. Did I just read her mind? I shook the thought away quickly though. No, there was no way in hell that I could do that. If there was, how would I possibly fail all those oral tests Professor Sprout gives us? It wasn't possible, it couldn't happen-

I didn't have much longer to worry about that, because at that moment, the battle between Fleur and the bright green dragon went underway. She took a different approach than Cedric had. Instead of strolling around the edge of the stadium, looking for an opening, she crouched low, making herself a smaller target as she crept along. She was smaller than all of the other contestants, even Harry, who was at least three years younger then everybody else. It appeared that she was going to attempt to use her size and agility to all its advantage.

This was a smart move on her part, because once she got in front of the big green monster, she had no time to lounge around. The dragon immediately shot fire at her, causing the albino-blond to dodge to her left before weaving back in front of the dragon.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why this girl would want to be _in front_ of the freaking thing, but after a few more tries, Fleur managed to come face to face with the beast without not-so-spontaneously combusting. She held her wand out, moving it back and forth while muttering to herself. What the hell was she doing? If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was attempting...

"Hypnosis," Fred and George whispered at the same time in awe.

After a few moments, the dragon lay down, sleep seeming to overtake it as Fleur crept closer, grabbing hold of the egg... as the dragon snored, sending flames onto the blond's skirt. Geez, could no one survive an encounter with a dragon without being set on fire?

The spectators erupted into cheers as Fleur put the fire out, hurrying out of the arena so the third champion could enter and battle the bright red dragon, the color of angry flames.

Because we need so many more reminders of fire.

"Here he is, ladies and gentlemen," Bagman proclaimed after Fleur had received her scores. "Your third champion, the international Quidditch star... Victor Krum!"

Hermione and I exchanged anxious glances. Harry was going last. Great. Just because we didn't want him to be the one to kick things off, that didn't mean we wanted to anticipate the battle to come for eons of time.

Next to me, Alejandros reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. I looked over at him, realizing that his best friend was about to battle a dragon. I tilted my head to the side. "It's going to be okay," I said, smiling softly. He gave me an uneasy grin, but nodded.

Behind me, I could hear Fred and George muttering about our joined hands, but I ignored them.

Victor wasn't as casual as Cedric had been, but he wasn't as stealthy as Fleur, either. Instead, he brazenly marched towards the dragon, never deviating from his straight path... until the thing shot fire at him.

Rolling to the side, he jumped up into a crouch and stared at the thing, trying to will it to look at him, I suppose. Instead, the nasty beast decided to just get rid of anyone and everyone in the arena with it. Making a wide arc, the dragon blasted fire close to the ground, coating various rocks and the occasional stray blade of grass in fire.

Alejandros let out a strangled gasp as Victor leapt for one of the boulders, positioning himself between the wall and the rock, the heat coming inches from him. But the blast of heat seemed to be what Victor was looking for. It assured the Bulgarian star that the dragon was looking at him... and so he leaned out from behind the rock and cast a charm... that blinded the dragon.

The beast howled in agony as Victor ran forward, almost diving to grab his egg and get out of the way of the beast as it crushed the very real dragon's eggs that surrounded it. I turned to face Alejandros in reassurance; nothing had happened to his friend.

One of the champions escaped unharmed.

Alejandros smiled back at me, relief evident on his face. "Thank Merlin."

Only he hadn't said it.

That's right, the cry of happiness that I heard in his voice hadn't come from him. His mouth was still tightly closed as I blinked at him in surprise. Oh my god. He hadn't said _anything_. Holy crap. I just read his mind.

How the _hell_ was that possible?

"Hey," Ron exclaimed suddenly. "That's Charlie! Our brother," he added for my benefit. "He's down there with the dragons."

George chuckled in amusement. "Look at that! We'll have to go see him after this is over." _After Fred and I go see the bloody prat about the gold before he runs off first, of course._ My mouth dropped open. There was no way in hell he had said that aloud.

Agh! Why was this happening to me? I couldn't deal with this right now, I needed to be focused on Harry, on skipping through the future for possible changes-

And then it hit me.

_Of course!_ That was why I could suddenly read minds! I was focusing all of my special powers, using them to their full advantage. _That _was why I was picking up extra things. _That_ was why I suddenly had this new cool power, because I had been trying to use one of my _old_ cool powers to an enormous extent.

Did that mean if I focused really hard, I'd have fun new abilities? I was, after all, the supposed Ultimate Power. Did that mean I could do even more stuff? If so, what could I do? When would I figure it out? Would I be able to keep this mind reading talent of mine, use it at will even?

As pressing as these concerns were, I knew that I had to pay attention to Harry. He entered the arena, looking warily at the black dragon with spikes on its tail and back...

Wait a second. Spikes? What the _hell_ was up with that? None of the other contestants had a dragon with spikes!

My throat constricted. Things just got a helluva lot more dangerous.

"Come on Harry," I whispered, Alejandros squeezed one of my hands as Hermione took hold of the other. "Show them all what you've got."

The youngest champion raised his hand in the air, his wand high up in the direction of the castle as he yelled "_Accio Firebolt!_"

I blinked as around us students muttered uncertainly. I sighed. "Harry, you idiot."

Hermione jerked around to face me, surprise coloring her face. "What?"

I gave her a no-duh look. "Well first of all, did he have to shout? He was the only champion that didn't whisper his spell. It seems kind of amateur-ish."

Hermione's jaw clenched. From behind me, Fred laughed and added in his two cents. "Good point. However, he _is_ an amateur. That's why it's such a big deal that he's a champion."

I nodded. "Right, but wouldn't it have made more sense to summon the golden egg instead of the broomstick?"

Stunned silence met my statement before Alejandros broke it. "Perhaps you can come up vith a strategy for Victor for the next task," he joked.

I opened my mouth to respond, but was interrupted as Harry's broom shot out of the sky, zooming right into his hand as he effortlessly hoped on and took off for the sky. The dragon roared in anger as he flew above it, shooting up higher and higher.

"Whoa," I whispered. Holy crap. So _that_ was what flying on a broom looked like.

The dragon shot fire as Harry played chicken, swooping down low before climbing higher still. I thought this might actually go off without a hitch... and then it hit me.

_Harry swooped, clutching the egg in his hand as the dragon tried to get low enough to stop him, the tail hitting Broomstick Boy hard in the shoulder as one of the spikes dug into it..._

"Oh great," I moaned.

"He's got it!" Bagman yelled. "The youngest champion has gotten the egg the fastest! And... oh!"

And Harry was hit.

In retrospect, it didn't do much damage to him, he just stumbled a bit as he got off his broom, but how effortless his flying had been made up for it. Ron, Hermione, and I jumped up. I pulled away from Alejandros with a gentle squeeze of my hand, and the three of us went off to find Harry. Alejandros headed in the opposite direction, looking for Victor.

"Harry!" Hermione cried, throwing her arms around the injured boy. "Thank Merlin you're alright!"

"Glad you didn't die," I said with a crooked grin, gazing at the angry red wound that occupied his shoulder.

Harry's eyes however, were locked on Ron's as he waited for the apology that was to come. "Mate," Ron said slowly. "I... I think someone's trying to kill you!"

"Again? Wow, that's news to me. I never thought I'd be someone's target for a fourth time," Harry said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes. "You've been hanging around me too much, Harry." I smirked. "Sarcasm doesn't really become you." I turned to Hermione to find the brunette's eyes alight with happiness at the thought that her two best friends were finally getting along again. "Come on, let's go find Fred and George. It'll give these two time to catch up."

* * *

"I had no idea it was possible to fly like that! Hell, I had no idea it was possible to fly, period!" It was later that night, and I was sitting in Tyler's living room, drinking coffee as I told him about the first task. We didn't have rehearsal that night, but we thought it would be a good idea to catch up. What a long way we had come from avoiding each other completely. "It was incredible."

"It sounds like it was," he agreed. "Why aren't you back with the Gryffindors, though?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow curiously. "Surely there has to be an after party going on."

I snorted. "If you mean a bunch of kids drinking butterbeer with its sip of alcohol and eating chocolate chip cookies as the scream at the top of their lungs? No thanks, I'm good."

Tyler rolled his eyes and leaned forward, looking across the table at me with interest. "I never thought I'd see the day you would willingly miss a party."

I shrugged though, content just sitting there with my ex. "There's a first time for everything."

* * *

Hey guys, here's a longer chapter for you! So there's the first task! What did you think?

Reviews help me update faster, so RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and I Love it!

Lurve forevs,

-Selene


	11. Birthday Bash

Things seemed to settle into relative normalcy after the first task ended. Hermione insisted that Harry attempt to work out the egg's clue, but the scarred teen reminded her that he had until well after Christmas to figure it out. Harry and Ron went back to being the inseparable duo that they always had been, running amok doing whatever they pleased as Hermione sat in the library, looking on with an amused smirk as she studied.

Life for me, on the other hand, didn't change much. I still went to rehearsal four days a week. Our routines were getting cleaner as competition drew nearer, and Darcy couldn't have been more pleased about this. Tyler and I were now talking comfortably. The awkwardness between us had permanently diminished the day the two of us had perfected the lift that had been giving us trouble for weeks on end.

I was talking with Alejandros almost daily now. We had a pretty tight friendship, though it hadn't progressed further than that yet. Truth be told, I wasn't too bummed about that. At first, conversations with him were tough. He came from a Bulgarian wizarding family, and I from an American muggle one. I knew almost nothing about what he was saying, and he felt the same.

If you put aside the differences in upbringing however, we found that we were pretty compatible. We both had the same eating habits, we both were easily annoyed, and we both wanted to keep our friend competing in the tournament alive.

That's not a lot for a long-term relationship to go on, but it was plenty for a short-term one.

Classes continued to go fairly well. I managed to keep up in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, due in part to Hermione's superlative tutoring skills. I was passing, learning the material to some extent but not retaining all of it. Transfiguration and Potions, on the other hand seemed to be my 'calling'. I easily caught up to my peers in Transfiguration, and I surpassed them in Potions.

I spent hours contemplating why Transfiguration was so easy for me before the answer appeared. It seemed to be because in a way, every time I turned into a shadow I was transfiguring myself. If I could transfigure myself, than of course I should be able to transfigure inanimate objects.

And Potions was easy because it was basically dangerous cooking.

No joke, I was rivaling Hermione for her spot as top of the class in Potions, and I think it was starting to annoy her that the ignorant new girl could be as good as she was, if not better.

Herbology wasn't too hard; you just had to follow instructions. As for Care of Magical Creatures, I had learned the sure-fire way to excel in that class: Do nothing. I spent all of my time sitting on the sidelines as I pretended to listen to the lecture Hagrid gave about the dangerous and twisted creatures he loved so much.

The only class that I was failing (and I mean truly, you-just-got-an-F-haha failing) was Divination. The one class I should have been acing.

_Because I can freaking see the future_.

It was slightly ironic that the class that should have been the easiest for me was the hardest, but Trelawny's course wasn't difficult because it was hard. It was difficult because it was impossible to do what she wanted.

Trelawny faked her way through making predictions. She couldn't spot a real premonition if it came up behind her and bit her on the ass... She seemed to think that I had no clue what the hell I was doing, no matter how many times I pointed out to her that I was right; I always knew when it was going to rain or when it would snow, and according to her, I _still_ didn't have 'the gift'.

Old bat.

In addition to advancing in my schooling career, I had continued to contemplate the growing magical powers that surrounded me. Seeing the future? Turning into a shadow? Reading minds? Was that all, or was there more?

To tell you the truth, it kind of freaked me out. I knew I was the Ultimate Power and all, but how many more strange quirks would I acquire before I lost my mind? Before someone else learned my secret? No, I couldn't risk exploring my powers further; I had to keep them secret.

So I vowed to push the First Task Incident out of my mind, and move on with my life.

Because of my resolve, Harry, Ron, and I were walking back to the common room one day when we were nearly tackled by Hermione. "Harry," she said breathlessly as Ron jumped out of the way to avoid the collision. "You have _got_ to come and see this! Come on!" She grabbed Harry by the arm and began pulling him down the hall.

"Are we tagging along too?" I asked, gesturing to Ron and myself.

"Hurry up!" she yelled back.

With a roll of my eyes, I followed her down the hall, Ron and I keeping pace with her as she dragged Harry down flights of stairs, through corridors, into one secret passage way... And then she stopped.

"Here we are," she said with a smile.

"Where's here?" I asked, looking around. The four of us were standing in a dimly lit hallway across from a painting. The picture was of a bowl filled with different types of fruit...

"Oh no," Harry said suddenly, shaking his head. "Stop, Hermione. You're not going to rope us into the spew stuff again."

She huffed. "It's S.P.E.W." Leaning up, Hermione reached her hand up to tickle the pear in the painting... "Besides. That's not why we're here."

The painting swung open, revealing what looked to be a kitchen with white-washed walls... But my vision was soon obscured as out of the room flew a ratty little brown thing with huge ears, launching himself at Harry. "Harry Potter!" the thing said from around his waist.

Harry's eyes widened in shock, taking in the creature that had attached itself to him. "Dobby?"

* * *

So _these_ were house-elves.

They all had big ears and huge eyes in a variety of colors. As we had climbed through the portrait hall, the elves began falling all over themselves to serve us, offering food and drinks at our leisure.

Well they may not live in a hollow tree baking cookies, but their hospitality is certainly not lacking.

The Golden Trio, as the Slytherins had come to call them spitefully, sat huddled around Dobby and some other elf as she sobbed her little heart out. She held a bottle of the alcohol-that-could-possibly-never-ever-get-you-drunk as she wailed, proving that house-elves can't hold their liquor.

I took a sip out of my mug and turned to smile at the elf in front of me. "Thanks, Dipsy." What a horrible name; it was something straight out of the _Teletubbies._"Do you think I could have another cup of coffee?"

"Anything, miss," she said, bowing low before quickly grabbing the pot and giving me a refill. "Is there anything else the miss would like?"

I started to shake my head, but then a thought struck me. I bit my lip, sorely tempted. "Well..." Should I do it? "Do you know how to make chocolate cheesecake?" I asked.

"Yes miss. We's know how to cook everythings," Dipsy said, once again bowing low. "Do you wants us to make some?"

"Oh not right now," I said with a kind smile at the little thing. "But if it's not too much trouble, do you think you could make me some on December first?"

"Of course, miss. Dipsy will make cake."

"Why December first?" Ron asked, abandoning the drama that was unfolding behind him as he came to sit by me. Immediately, a house elf came over and offered him some tea which he quickly accepted.

"That's my birthday," I said with a shrug.

Ron blinked. "Really? Blimey, you should have told us!"

I rolled my eyes. "It's no big deal." Truth be told, I was a little embarrassed about it. I was a year older than all of them, and celebrating my birthday would just make that fact so much more obvious. By advertising my age, I'd be (in the eyes of the Slytherins) advertising my stupidity, and I really didn't want that.

"Dipsy will make cake," the house elf repeated. "Dipsy is honored to make cake for special event."

"Hey Harry," Ron called out. "Did you know it was Avery's birthday in a week?"

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "It is?"

I groaned. They would be grilling me about this for hours, I could just tell.

* * *

"The Yule Ball is a tradition during the Triwizard Tournament, and all students in the fourth year or higher are allowed to attend. You may bring a date from a younger year, if you wish," McGonagall said stiffly. I fought the urge to snort. She was obviously hoping no one would bring a younger date. "But I expect_everybody_ to be on their best behavior. Gryffindor shall not be shamed in one night, and neither shall Hogwarts. Do I make myself clear?"

We murmured our agreement before she dismissed us, letting us wander out of our Transfiguration class a few minutes earlier than normal. "Well," Ron said with a frown. "This is horrible."

"How is this horrible?" I asked incredulously. "Hogwarts is having a dance! Granted, the word ball is used, and that typically has the connotation of an elegant dance with very little room for the wild songs that we as teenagers naturally love," I mused to myself. "But it shouldn't be _that_ bad."

"Well you can't complain," Ron said as he rolled his eyes. "I mean look at you! You're obviously going to be asked! Probably by more then one person, if my brothers get a hold of you..."

I scoffed. "Are you insane? You think I'll have people wanting to ask me? I'm not the elegant Cinderella type, and everybody knows it. I'm nothing but an American Mudblood. While that may be a great name for a bad dramady movie, it's not such a great title for a prom date."

Ron blinked. "What?"

I opened my mouth to explain the wonders of the American cinema, and all the crappy movies like _Bolt_ that go through our theaters, but I was interrupted. "Avery," a smooth voice said from behind me. "May I haf a vord?"

I turned, finding Alejandros standing behind me, an amused look gracing his chiseled features. "Sure," I said, waving bye to Ron, Hermione, and Harry as I followed the Bulgarian down the hall. "What's up?"

"Haf you heard about the ball?" he asked as I leaned back against the wall behind me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Boy, word travels fast."

He chuckled, reaching out with his right hand and placing it on the wall behind me, right next to my face. I fought the urge to raise an eyebrow. All of a sudden, Alejandros had gotten very forward, almost as if he was hitting on me... "Vell? Who are you going vith?"

"Depends," I said, tilting my head to the side. I was in awe that he was actually asking me. Call me insecure, but with my personality and status at Hogwarts, I thought for sure I'd be someone's fallback. Wow, Ron was _good_. "Are you asking?"

"Maybe."

"Well then I may be going with you," I let that sink in before continuing. "Of course, only if you're asking."

"Then I am," he said with a smirk, placing his left hand on the wall by my head as well, efficiently caging me in. My heart began to thud in my chest.

"Really," I asked, looking up at him, his slightly pink lips mere inches away from my own. He was going to kiss me, I _knew_ he was going to kiss me. A million worries began to chase around in my mind: How was my breath? Was my hair too flat? Should I not have worn heels? It had been awhile since I'd kissed Ty; had I retained my make-out skills?

"Really," he breathed back, leaning in. My eyes slowly began to close...

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Nouvelli, for inappropriate conduct in the hallways," a silky voice from behind Alejandros said.

My eyes snapped open, Alejandros' face still inches away. Looking over his shoulder, I saw Professor Snape staring triumphantly at us, a book in hand. I rolled my eyes, anger coursing through me. "Stop being bitter. Just because I'm getting some and you're not..."

His face twisted into that of a sneer. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for disrespect and vulgar insinuations."

Alejandros pulled back, stepping away from us both with a nervous look upon his handsome face. "I vill see you later," he muttered, backing away.

I sighed, shaking my head as I turned on my heel to leave the Bat of the Dungeons behind. "Thanks a lot, Professor Severus."

* * *

I opened the door to the dorm room after that close encounter with Snape to find Hermione and Ginny sitting on the former girl's bed. Both girls glanced up expectantly at me as I walked in. Ginny grinned with a cheeky wonder. "Well?"

I tilted my head to the side, letting my long brown hair fall over my shoulders. The black and pink streaks in it had started to fade back in October, and I had recently gotten them redone in addition to recutting my bangs. "What are you 'welling' for?"

Ginny rolled her eyes at my ignorance. "Did that Bulgarian man ask you to the ball or not?"

I raised my eyebrows at Hermione. "You told her about Alejandros?"

Hermione shrugged, completely at ease as I moved towards them. "She was asking about the ball. Ginny wanted to know who we were considering going with. I told her that I had no clue, but that you were probably going with Krum's friend. Was I right?"

I sat besides them on Hermione's bed, sighing as I relaxed. "Yeah, you were right."

Ginny squealed, launching into a-mile-a-minute speech about god knows what. Hermione and I sat in a dazed wonder as the redhead continued to babble about the awesomeness of this development. "...And then he can walk you back to the common room, and he can kiss you good night, and you'll have to say goodbye to him then; it wouldn't do any good for you to try and bring a foreigner into the Gryffindor tower. McGonagall would throw a fit! But all we need now is for Hermione to find a date, and then hopefully I will find one so I'm allowed to go..."

At these words, a possible scenario flashed before my eyes like a bad Nicholas Cage movie...

_"Ginny... Do you think maybe... Well, could you perhaps, er, go to the ball with me?" asked a red-faced Neville Longbottom, his brown eyes staring hopefully into the brown eyes of the girl across from him._

_Ginny smiled kindly, obviously not thrilled but not disappointed either. "Of course I will, Neville. It will be a pleasure."_

I started back into the present to find Ginny and Hermione looking at me in wonder. "Sorry," I said shaking my head as I looked knowingly at Hermione. "I spaced for a moment." Turning my full attention to Ginny, I said. "If I were you, I'd keep an eye on Neville."

She blinked at me, stunned by my reaction. "Neville? Neville _Longbottom?_"

"Do you know of anyone else with such a crappy name?" I asked drily.

She ran her fingers through her bright red hair, seemingly unsure. "Neville Longbottom... I guess that's okay..."

Satisfied that she would at least consider it, I faced Hermione. "And you... Well, let's just say that I don't think you're going to be dateless for too long," I mused, thinking of the Bulgarian Quidditch star.

Her eyes widened considerably as Ginny gasped in surprise. "Do you know something?" asked Hermione, her voice laden with curiosity.

I just smiled like the Cheshire cat and said, "You'll see."

* * *

My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year.

I wasn't expecting anything at all; I had only divulged the day of my birthday a week ago, after all. It wasn't like they could come up with anything given the little time.

I awakened half an hour before breakfast at eight, so I took my time in vamping myself up. My eyelashes were curled to their breaking point, the layers of mascara I wore giving them a major lift. I took the time to twist my hair into a faux bun, the black and pink streaks blending into my brown locks. My face in the mirror stared back at me as I tilted my head to the side. Maybe next time, I would get red streaks.

I didn't have nearly as much of a creative license for my wardrobe as I would have liked, seeing as Hogwarts was a uniformed school. However, I made due, stretching the boundaries as far as I was allowed to go.

For starters, I wore a red lace bra and a black camisole; the lace peaking out of the top of the cami. Don't worry, I kept to the proper school attire, putting on the long-sleeved crisp white button-down on over that. The only difference: I kept it unbuttoned.

Gasp.

I tied the crimson tie around my neck and let it hang over my cami. The shortened skirt that went with the uniform came next, stopping mid-thigh on my black fishnet-covered legs. Ending the ensemble was a pair of black leather ankle boots.

Hey, if you had been stuck in the same outfit for three months, you'd be trying anything for a new look, too.

By the time I had made my way out of the fourth year girl's bathroom, I was actually running late. The rest of the girls were all gone, and I quickly grabbed my robe, hurrying to get to the Great Hall in time so I could actually eat before class.

"Happy birthday!"

I stumbled as Ginny threw her arms around me, excitement coursing across the redhead's features. I glared over the table at Ron. The traitor had blabbed! Patting the girl on the back so she would let go, I muttered, "Uh, thanks."

Ginny pulled back, sitting back down as I slid into the seat between her and Harry. "Happy birthday," he said to me kindly. Well, at least he didn't blow my eardrums out like Ginny had.

"So," Ron asked as Harry passed me the pot of coffee. "How's it feel to be sixteen?"

"You're sixteen?"

I turned to find Fred and George slipping onto the bench by Ginny. And so it begins. Soon, the whole world would know just how old I was in relations to my peers. "Yeah. My birthday's today."

"Well then," Fred said with a grin. "Happy birthday to you!"

"And might I say, you look absolutely lovely this morning," George added.

I rolled my eyes as I started to pile the blueberry pancakes and sausages onto my plate. "Thanks."

"Here," Harry said from next to me, handing me a wrapped package. "I hope you like it."

My eyes immediately widened in surprise. "You didn't have to give me anything." Of course, like any true teenage American, as I was protesting, I was slowly grabbing the package from his hand...

Harry waved the thought away. "It was no big deal."

It didn't take long for me to pull a box of chocolate frogs from the depths of the scarlet wrapping paper. I snorted with laughter. "Chocolate. Brilliant." I started then, surprised by what I'd just said. "Oh my god, I can't believe I just said brilliant. You people are really rubbing off on me. Next thing you know, I'll be walking around with a crappy British accent."

"It probably won't be that bad," Ginny said, holding out what looked like a bright blue shoebox towards me. I took it, smiling at her in thanks before I opened it. "I thought you might like them," Ginny explained. "After all, I've seen your vast collection of shoes, and I was surprised that you didn't have any."

In my hands I held a pair of strappy deep purple heels with ties that appeared to be long enough to wind halfway up my leg. "Wicked," I breathed.

"And here," Ron said, holding out his gift. "Sorry, I didn't have time to wrap it," he muttered, the tips of his ears turning pink.

I smirked. "Well then I obviously can't accept it," I joked. I looked quickly at the object in my hand before quickly flashing Ron my best fake-appreciative smile. "Thanks!"

He nodded in enthusiasm. "It's a book about the best Quidditch players in the world. It has everyone, even Krum!"

Like I would voluntarily read this when I had four _years_ worth of scholastic reading I needed to catch up on.

"Awesome."

"So," Fred said, pushing Ginny out of the way as he moved to sit by me. "The Yule Ball was announced a few days ago."

I rolled my eyes. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

"Who are you going with," George asked, sitting down casually on my other side. "Unless, of course, you don't have a date yet. In that case, I'd be glad to take you."

"As would I," Fred jumped in.

I chuckled, shaking my head from side to side in amusement. Fred, George, and I had a purely flirtatious relationship. Half the time, I didn't think they really meant the passes they were making at me. "Sorry boys, but it's your loss. I've already got a date."

"Really," Fred asked, raising one of his eyebrows. "Who is it?"

"Who do you think?"

The faces of the twins simultaneously darkened. "Not that Bulgarian bonehead," George asked wryly.

I took a swig of coffee before answering. "What do you have against Alejandros?" I asked. "Harry, pass me the coffee pot."

Fred shook his head, a frustrated look overtaking his features. "He's a foreigner."

I pulled a face. "And that makes him bad?"

"No! It's just... He's older then you," George finished lamely as I poured myself another cup of liquid caffeine. "And he's from Bulgaria... Who knows what he'll want you to, uh, do."

"Well it's a little late to be worrying about that," Ginny said, her eyes shining in anticipation of good gossip. I took another sip of coffee. "Because apparently Snape already caught her and Alejandros shagging in the corridor."

Just like in a bad Adam Sandler flick, I spit out the hot substance, coughing as her words sank in. It took a few pounds from Fred to get me back to normal again. Across the table from me, Hermione and Ron exchanged nervous glances. "What?" I said after a few minutes of attempted breathing.

Ginny shrugged. "You heard me." She leaned forward, giving our group a good view of her as she gave us the gold that was her gossip. "I heard it from Lavender, who heard it from Parvati, who heard it from Padma, who was told by Pansy, who was informed by Draco, who got it directly from Snape himself that the two of you were going at it."

I made a face. "Not really a direct source, is it?"

She just rolled her eyes. "Well? Is it true or not?"

"Of course not!" I hissed. I couldn't believe they thought so low of me. Vulgar and uncaring about how others view me, I might be, but that didn't mean I would go around sleeping with people in the middle of a hallway that people often passed through.

I'd choose an empty hall, duh.

"I'm not stupid enough to get caught screwing someone by _Snape_ of all people." Fred and George's mouths dropped open. Apparently, they were expecting me to deny that I would ever be sleeping with anyone at all. I ignored them and kept going. "We were just about to kiss, that was all. Hell, it wasn't as if we had ever kissed before. It would have been our first kiss."

"If you say so," Ron said uneasily.

"I do."

"Still," Fred said, exchanging uneasy glances with his brother. "I think we should keep an eye on the two of you. Just in case." George nodded his agreement.

* * *

"I need to talk to you," Hermione muttered out of the corner of her mouth from besides her cauldron. It was potions class later in the day, Hermione and myself working near each other as Snape prowled around, looking for helpless victims he could pounce on.

"What about?"

She sighed, glancing at me before quickly looking away. "I just got asked to the Yule Ball," she confessed at last.

A grin stretched its way over my face. So the boy took the big step after all... "So what did you tell Victor?"

She scowled at me, her jaw flexing in suppressed anger. "I should have known you and Alejandros would be conspiring together behind my back," she hissed, falling silent for a moment as Snape passed closer to us. The wannabe emo man peered into my cauldron before sniffing and striding away. He was probably bummed that I hadn't killed myself with a poorly made potion yet.

Ass.

Hermione spoke again, though even quieter than she had before. And that's saying something. "I told him yes. I couldn't think of a good enough reason to say no," she confessed.

I rolled my eyes at her foolishness. "Why should you say no? Now you've got a hot piece of man-candy as your date to the ball. It would have been stupid to go alone. You probably would have ended up with Ron." We both glanced over to see the redhead stirring frantically at his potion, trying to make it go from the putrid green color it was to the lavender shade it was supposed to be.

I shuddered, but Hermione frowned, her cheeks turning a slight pink color. "He's not that bad," she muttered.

This time, it was my turn to scoff. "Are you nuts? He gave me a sports book for my birthday. The only thing that'll be good for is as a place to hollow out and store my supply of lip gloss. You know Ginny keeps stealing all of mine."

Hermione's eyes lit up with a new sort of fire, and for a second I foolishly thought she was actually interested in a discussion of various make-up products. Silly me. "Oh! I almost forgot. I have your birthday present upstairs."

The potion in my cauldron turned the coveted lavender as I dropped in the newt's tail. I raised an eyebrow. "You got me something? And here I thought I had just been forgotten."

"Oh hush," she said, lightly whacking me on the arm with one hand while she continued to stir with the other. "It's a book about Seers," she confided. "You said you went through all of the muggle books on the subject you could find, well here's a wizarding one. I would have given it to you at breakfast, but I didn't think you would have wanted something like that spread about."

I snorted as I bottled up my potion. Class was almost over. "God no! People might think I'm attempting to jack Lavender's position as Trelawny's disciple." Hermione looked over to me with a grin, her mouth open in response before it suddenly shifted to a look of horror. "What?"

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger, for violence against a classmate," a confident drawl from behind me sounded as it spoke of when Hermione had jokingly hit me moments before.

I looked up at Batman, my face twisting into one of my many smirks. "Is that all you ever do? Take off points?"

Snape ignored my jab, however, and just ran his eyes up and down my body, a look of disgust overcoming his features. "Ten points from you, Miss Nouvelli, for an improper uniform."

"Hey," I protested futilely. "Everything's there! There's nothing improper about it."

"And," Snape continued, going on as if he hadn't even heard me. "Another ten points because of all that ruckus you were making this morning."

"Oh sure," I muttered with a roll of my eyes. "Say nothing when the hall erupts into cheers on Ferret Boy's birthday, but on mine? Oh yeah, that's some major point losage right there."

His upper lip curled. "Perhaps I should see you tonight in detention."

But to the surprise of everyone in the class, I squealed, grabbing his hand and pulling him forward. "Oh Severus! You want to spend my birthday with me, how sweet! But I thought we weren't going to reveal the true nature of our relationship yet, we didn't want any nasty rumors to be spread, remember?" I smiled up at him innocently, trying my hardest not to recoil from his touch.

He stared at me in shock, too stunned to even pull his hand away from me as a look of horrified disgust overcame his features. The class around us began to mutter in surprise. The bell rang and I dropped his hand, grabbing my bag as I left. "Bye now!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurried to catch up. "Oh Merlin!" Ron said, a look of horror etched onto his face. "You're shagging _Snape_?"

I scoffed. "Of course not! Do I look like I have low standards? I just wanted to avoid detention."

* * *

Dinner was more of an affair than I had originally predicted. Fred and George had decided to grant me two get-out-of-jail free passes; I would be allowed to use their... expertise for anything I wanted when the time came.

And of course, Dipsy made me my cake.

The fourth year Gryffindors along with Ginny, Fred, George, Lee, and Collin proceeded to sing my happy birthday, much to Snape's displeasure. I could practically feel his eyes glued to my head as he glowered at me for besting him in class. I looked up at him, smirking in triumph as he scowled.

"Happy birthday, Avery."

His scowl deepened as Alejandros slid up behind me, lightly wrapping his arms around my waist. Lavender and Parvati exchanged surprised glances, and I almost groaned out loud; the rumor mill would be flourishing tonight at my expense.

I turned around to face him. "Hey," I whispered, bringing my arms up to wrap around his neck. "Nice to see you."

"It is very nice to see you too, Avery," he said, a smirk lighting up his face. "But perhaps it is time I give you your present, no?" He leaned towards me, pulling me forward to press his lips against my own as the Gryffindor table erupted into cat calls. It was a simple kiss, his lips soft and gentle, as if he didn't want to use too much force the first time around. He didn't open his mouth either, but I suspected it was because he wasn't a big fan of PDA. It wasn't anything spectacular by any means, but for a first kiss between the two of us, it was nice.

Somehow, despite being deeply distracted, I was still aware of Severus Snape's black eyes glaring into my back.

* * *

Hey everybody! First thing is first, I am so so sorry for not updating right away! I know I said that I would update last week, but I started dance team boot camp and have been dancing for five hours straight (starting at nine in the freaking morning!), taking a shower, eating food, and then dancing for another three hours before going home, eating more food, and rehearsing the pieces.

This camp is kicking my ass!

But it's so much fun, and it's definitely making me a better dancer, so I'm happy! We are o going to score at competition! Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! I'm sorry about all of the movie allusions (cough, Next, cough), but I rewatched that movie a few weeks ago, and it was still fresh in my mind...

So please persuade me to update faster and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... I so Love it!

Lurve no matter how tired I am,

-Selene


	12. Having a Ball

A few days later found Hermione and me entering the common room to find a slightly depressed Harry and a morbid Ron sitting besides Ginny. The redhead perked up when she saw us, though that wasn't surprising seeing as she only had the sorrowed souls as her companions.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, sitting next to Ron with her head tilted to the side.

"They're both still dateless to the ball," Ginny confided, her eyes still gleaming with humor. "They don't have anyone like _we_ do."

"Hold on a second," Ron said, looking up at his sister suddenly. "You've got a date?"

"Is that so hard to believe?"

As much as I loved hearing the day-to-day Weasley bickering match, I decided to steer Ron back to his original problem. "So what are you going to do?"

Ron shrugged the suspicion still in his eyes as he gave me his attention again. "I don't know. I guess one of us will go with Hermione-"

The brunette in question snorted. "You most certainly will not."

"Hermione," Ron said, gasping in surprise. "Help us out here! We need dates, you need a date... It all fits!"

She stood up with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest as she scowled. "Believe it or not, _I've _already got a date." She exited gracefully, bringing her book bag up against her chest as she strode from the room and up the stairs to the girl's dormitory, leaving Ron's mouth to drop open.

Harry turned to me, a questioning look upon his normally neutral face. "Does she really have a date?" Ron's head snapped my way. He was obviously eager for a response.

To the chagrin of both of them, I only shook my head. "You'll see."

* * *

In no time at all, Christmas was upon us. Harry celebrated the day by gracing me with what he deemed priceless information: that he was in contact with his godfather, a man who was on the run because he was a convicted murderer.

Great.

Harry claimed he was falsely accused, but that did nothing to quell the feeling of unease that formed inside me at this proclamation. However, the gifts did.

Among the vast assortment of gifts I opened Christmas morning, some of the notable things I received were everything from new clothes from Ginny to chocolate from Ron. Tyler got me a new program to mix music for my laptop, while Darcy seemed to be under the impression that since I was dating again, I needed more lingerie...

The majority of the school had decided to stay behind for Christmas this year, something that Hermione assured me was very unusual. The Ball was apparently such a wondrous commodity that all of the upper year students were dying to experience.

Harry and Ron ended up going with the twins that I'd met back in Diagon Alley, Parvati and Padma. Never mind that neither of them were very bright, and that I was sure one of them was pretty handy with a cheating spell; apparently no date was worse than a dim-witted one.

The lunchtime feast was an affair to remember. Seeing all of my classmates clad in jeans and plain tee shirts made me remember that most of them were actually human. No more was I surrounded by British idiots that were only concerned with waving their wands around; I had finally stepped into teenager land.

Thank god.

Alejandros and I sat on one of end of the Gryffindor table by ourselves. He told me about his hometown in some freaking freezing cold country that I would never for the life of me want to visit, while I told him of Friction.

He had no clue what the hell I was talking about.

But it was okay, because Alejandros and I had both gotten fairly good at faking interest when the other person was talking. We both knew that we didn't have any basis for a solid relationship that would last, but we mutually figured a fling couldn't possibly hurt.

Later that day, the Gryffin-dorks and I froze our asses off outside for an hour or so as we threw snowballs at each other. Who would have thought that something as childish and mundane as a snowball fight could be so entertaining?

I would have cherished being there for hours, enjoying the life I had miraculously made for myself among all of these people I had nothing in common with, but it wasn't long before Hermione reminded me that we needed to get ready for the ball.

And that was when fashion hell began.

* * *

"What do you think?"

I sighed, forcing myself not to roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all. Hermione Granger, bookworm extraordinaire, of all people was asking me for fashion advice _like she cared_.

Weird.

"Honestly, those shoes are the ugliest things I have ever seen in my entire life and I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole."

"Ooh, harsh," Parvati exclaimed as she sauntered past, her hair falling in ringlets around her shoulders. It was a good look on her, much better than the braid she had started out with.

"I agree with Avery, Hermione," Ginny said with a sympathetic smile. "Those brown pumps… well, they don't really match your dress."

I snorted. "Or anything on the planet."

I had to admit, Hermione had outdone herself. Her floor-length lavender gown was stunning, the ruffles in the skirt adding volume to her hips in a not-at-all-trashy way. She had even figured out how to do her hair so that it fell it ringlets to the right side of her head.

Her shoes on the other hand…

I backed away from the mirror, turning to face her. "Grab the violet strappy heels from my trunk, would you?" I said, gesturing towards said travelling item.

The brainiac blinked, confused by my order. "But you're wearing a red dress," she said as she reached for the shoes. "Doesn't violet not go with red?"

"Brilliant deduction, Watson," I smirked, lightly applying gold eye shadow to my lid. "They aren't for me; they're for you."

Her eyes widened considerably. "Me? Oh no, I couldn't—"

"Of course you can, Hermione," Ginny butt in. "Take the opportunity and run with it! You know her shoes are dashing."

I winced a little at the British slang, but chose not to comment. "You can always transfigure the size if they don't fit, you know," I pointed out, knowing logic was the best way to get Hermione to agree.

She bit her lip. "Well…"

"While you're at it," I interrupted, taking her long drawn-out 'well' for an affirmative. "You might want to consider some eyeliner. And mascara. I know the eye shadow is pretty and all, but you need a little more than that."

She looked startled by my admonishing attitude. "You mean I need _more_ make-up?"

"You should listen to her, Hermione," Lavender said with a wise air. "Most Americans have no idea what they're doing when it comes to make-up, but Avery is surprisingly not inept."

I scoffed. "Thanks."

"You should do it," Ginny agreed. "Just because you don't normally wear make-up, that doesn't mean you can't start for a special occasion. I mean, look at me. I'm all dolled up."

And that she was. Ginny's flowy turquoise dress did a nice job of offsetting the red in her hair without turning it into a Christmas card. She had managed to do her eyes up properly, adding just the right quantity of cream-colored eye shadow to make her look sexy, not trashy.

The only problem was…

"By the way, Ginny," I said slowly, a kind smile blossoming on my face. "You might want to do something with your hair."

Immediately, she self-consciously reached for it, her hands caressing her straight red locks. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing… If you were going to school. It looks like how you always wear it." I walked closer to her, careful not to wrinkle my dress as I moved. "Maybe you should curl it…"

She shook her head. "No, my hair hasn't ever held curls before."

A quick glance at the clock told me I'd have time to curl her hair and then finish mine… if I hurried. With a grimace, I said, "You've never had me do your hair before. Take a seat."

* * *

As the clock chimed seven and the ball officially began, I made my way down the grand staircase, taking my time. I could sense heads swivel in our direction, the three of us fashionably late per my request.

Hermione was the point in our triangle, but then again she _was_ the one going with a champion. I stood slightly behind her and to the right, with Ginny slightly behind Hermione also and on the left.

It didn't take me long to stop Alejandros in the crowd. His eyes were locked on mine, and the slightly lustful stare I used to bring out of Tyler was hidden in his eyes.

Hell, I knew I looked good. My crimson red dress was strapless, already a scandal in the wizarding community that had grown up so conservative. The bodice was tight, clinging to me while the skirt was loose and flowed out at the hips, accenting my long legs. The strappy red heels I was wearing weren't difficult to walk in at all, not to somebody who knew what they were doing, anyway. My hair fell in soft curls down my shoulders, completing the soft-yet-sexy look I had going.

My rouge-colored lips quirked into a smile as I stepped up to Alejandros, his eyes still roaming over my body. "Hi," he breathed, keeping his stare firmly on me.

Alejandros hadn't done so badly himself. It turns out that 'dress robes' are really suits (without the jacket) with a normal black robe on top. Yet there was something about seeing him in that white button down shirt…

My smile transformed into a minute smirk as I grabbed onto his hand. "We should probably go in."

* * *

The Yule Ball commenced with a dinner. The Great Hall had been rearranged into smaller tables that sat ten; the long house tables that had preceded them were long gone. The room was adorned with decorations in a white and light blue coloring that gave the room a winter wonderland feel.

Alejandros and I sat next to Fred, Angelina, George, and Alicia. The twins whistled simultaneously as I slid into my seat. "Well, well," George appraised. "Look who got all dressed up."

I rolled my eyes. "What do you think they're serving? I'm starved."

Fred shrugged, the black dress robe he had on making his red hair even fierier. "Dunno. All we have are these things." He held up a menu, confusion etched onto his face.

Alejandros tilted his head to the side. "I vonder vhat we do vith them."

Angelina opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Ron as he and Padma sat down to my right. "Have you seen Hermione? I can't believe her!"

"What, that she actually has a date," I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"That's she's going with _Krum_. Of all people, she had to pick him."

"Why do you care?"

"Because he's from Durmstrang! He's the enemy! No offense," he said aside to Alejandros. My date waved the thought away with his hand.

"Hey," Fred said suddenly. "Look, some of the other tables have food!"

I shook my head. "I think that's not the problem."

Ron frowned at me, stopping his ranting for a moment to inquire as to what I was talking about. "What do you mean?"

"How in the name of Merlin did they _do_ that," George asked. "Why do they have food and we don't?"

I sighed. Men. "It's okay if you like her, you know," I said nonchalantly. "It's not a big deal."

"That's bloody unfair," Fred protested.

"We need to eat too," George chimed in.

Ron's mouth dropped open as the tips of his ears began to grow red. "I do not!"

"You don't what?" Ginny asked as she sat by her brother, Neville on her right. "What are you going on about now?"

"Nothing," he spat, barriers coming up.

Ginny raised an eyebrow, glancing at me in wonder but I shook my head, not giving anything away. Maybe I had been reading all of the signs wrong, maybe Ron really _didn't_ like Hermione that way.

But it sure as hell was fun to watch him squirm.

"Hey Gin, do you know what the menus are for?" Fred asked, drawing the attention away from his embarrassed brother.

Ginny rolled her eyes, an amused smile overtaking her face. "You say the name of the food you want and it appears before you. Weren't you listening?"

"Obviously not," George smirked before ordering. The onslaught of the food came upon us as our table became laden down with more food than ten people would ever eat in their lifetime.

* * *

The first dance was lovely, though I got the impression that Harry and Hermione both had no idea what the hell they were doing. The champions slowly waltzed around the floor, Parvati wincing every time the Boy Who Lived stomped on her feet. The music eventually ended however, and Harry bolted from the dance floor, joining Ron on the sidelines.

The orchestra started up again in an instant, and while I didn't know the song, I could easily identify the melody of a waltz; it was second nature to me.

Grabbing Alejandros by the hand, I pulled him off onto the floor. I let him take the lead… until he promptly stepped on my foot. A dancer the Bulgarian was not. As he smiled sheepishly at me, I took the reins, leading him expertly around the dance floor as the ball portion of the evening began.

Students joined us on the floor, waltzing in a mundane manner that showed some training, but not enough to ever be considered good. Neville and Ginny really surprised me. Apparently, even though Neville was a total klutz in real life, he was graceful on the floor.

Who knew?

An hour later, Hermione and I were laughing by a table laden down with drinks. According to the brunette, Viktor was even less coordinated than Alejandros was.

Besides that little tidbit however, it appeared as though the two of them were getting along really well. "He's just so sweet," Hermione said as I popped the top off of a butterbeer. "I never expected that."

"Why? Because he's a foreigner?"

"No," she said, blushing a bit. "Because he's famous."

I could see how glory and the eternal paparazzi would be a deterrent in finding out someone's true personality. Nonetheless, I was pleased to hear that the two of them were getting along exceedingly well.

"You know," I said slyly. "You should go take a walk with him."

The blushing increased. "Oh, Merlin no! Then he might try to kiss me." I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to get it… "Oh! Surely you don't mean…"

"He's an attractive guy, you know," I said, tilting my head to the side. "You might want to give it a go."

To my astonishment, instead of furiously rebutting my argument, she bit her lip. "I don't know," she said slowly. "Isn't it a bit soon?"

"Oh, Merlin," a silky voice from behind us said. "Surely you have not stooped so low, Miss Granger, to be taking relationship advice from Miss Nouvelli." I turned warily, coming face to face with a smirking Severus Snape. "If you listen to her, you'll be in that boy's bed by tonight."

I had to stop the blatant shock I was feeling from appearing upon my face. Snape must have been drinking tonight; there was no way he would _ever_ have said that when he was sober.

_Ever_.

"I'll take that as a compliment," I said, trying my hardest not to snap. "Thanks for expressing your belief that I'm a relationship doctor, capable of making all of your various relationship dreams come true." I paused. "Maybe I should charge a flat rate."

He sneered at me, reminding me just what a slippery little bastard he was. "Only you could be as naïve as to turn such an obvious insult into a word of praise."

"And only you could arrive at a ball dateless when even Harry and Ron have managed to get partners," I shot back.

He scowled, the anger etched in his face quickly making its way to furry. "Ten points from Gryffindor!"

"And why aren't you dancing," I continued as if I hadn't heard him. "This is a ball, you know. That kind of implies some dancing is involved." He said nothing, keeping his glare fixed firmly upon me as Hermione slowly begun to back away. I blinked. "What? Can you not dance?"

I'd like to think I'd truly surprised him with my inquiry. After all, it probably wasn't very often that the bat-like Severus Snape got asked about his dancing skills. It took him a moment to answer; he had to recover from the shock first. "Of course I can dance!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it."

I'm noting here and now that this was the moment I became one hundred percent sure that Severus Snape was (at least partially) inebriated. My reasoning? If he'd been sober, I would have been dead.

No joke.

The intoxicated Snape that stood before me deliberated for a moment, actually thinking my request through before a thoughtful smirk appeared upon his face. "And if I prove that I can dance, what do I get?" Of course he was looking for an angle.

Even drunk he could still be cruel.

As insane as this may seem, I didn't want to back down. If Snape was so willing to make this bet with me, than he obviously had _some_ kind of formal training; drunk or not, he won't want to make an ass of himself.

Still, the challenge in his voice was egging me on. I knew that if I could entice Snape out onto the dance floor, I would be a legend among all of the students for years to come.

Plus, it's something great to blackmail him with later.

I met his smirk with one of my own. "Me in detention for one week. You can do whatever you want with me." I mentally winced, though I'm pretty sure that I was the only person who caught the innuendo. Snape was too plastered to pick up on it, and Hermione (who was now a safe distance away on the other side of the table) was too much of a goody-goody to understand.

"De-."

"But," I said, holding up a finger to stop him. "You have to stay out there for one whole song, no matter what. And when _I_ win," I said, stressing my confidence in the easy victory. "You have to award Gryffindor fifty points."

I'd finally gotten the dungeon's master to hesitate. He wasn't fool enough to know that it wouldn't take long for my classmates to realize he was _dancing _of all things_._ Once the heckling began, I was sure he'd want an easy way out.

Once again, I have to point out that if Snape wasn't wasted, there was _no freaking way_ I would have gotten away with this. After a moment of deliberation, Snape stuck out his hand and said, "Deal."

Holy crap! He agreed!

I shook his hand, sealing our fate… whatever that may be. He spoke. "We'll dance the next one."

Perfect, maybe I could—

Hold on a second. _We_?

"Wait a minute. _We'll_ dance the next one," I asked, my eyebrows rising higher than they have ever before in surprise.

The bastard looked amused. "Well of course. Who else would be my partner?"

Crap. "The next dance, then," I agreed. Don't get me wrong, I was still excited as hell about this… At least, until Snape sobers up and murders me in front of everyone.

Hopefully I'll be far, far away by the time that happens.

The waltz playing came to an end as the crowd applauded politely. I quelled the urge to roll my eyes. The one bad thing about balls: the freaking classical music. There was a reason Friction competes predominantly in jazz, hip hop, and character.

The next song began… and panic shot through me.

It was a tango.

Crap.

Maybe I should explain. The tango is a hell of a lot faster, more fun, and livelier than the waltz… and it's also a hell of a lot more romantic. Oh god, this was not good!

Severus and I exchanged looks. I could tell that he was also feeling qualms about our supposed brilliant deal. Nevertheless, he held out his hand. "A promise is a promise," he said, his voice retaining that silky quality it had despite the awkwardness of the situation.

He led me forward, out into the middle of the floor. I could hear the surprised whispers of my classmates as they realized what was going on. Snape stopped suddenly and turned, facing me head on. He placed his hand on my waist and expertly grabbed my right hand in his left. I draped my left hand on his shoulder, his alcoholic breath blowing in my face…

And then we began.

It didn't surprise me that his movements were smooth and graceful. As he led me around the floor, I recalled on assumption I'd made earlier in the year that he must have had dance training to be able to glide up so silently behind students when he was about to bust them for something idiotic. No, he definitely had training that the idiots had Hogwarts hadn't received.

What _did _shock me however, was how gentle he was. His hands left only enough pressure to guide my movements, his arm around my waist light and feathery.

I made the mistake of staring into his eyes… And that's when it happened.

_"What the _hell_ did you just do boy?" A tall man with a hooked nose and jet-black hair screamed._

_My focused turned as I saw an eight year-old with equally black hair huddled in the corner, fear running through his eyes as his father advanced on him…_

I was jerked from the memory as Snape spun me around.

That's right, memory.

I could barely keep my poker face intact. What the hell was going on? A few weeks ago, I was hearing voices (in a non-creepy way), and now I was seeing the_past_? As opposed to the future like _normal_?

Agh!

How could life get any weirder? Here I was, seeing a young Severus Snape— the whirling in my mind stopped as I processed this. A younger Snape as his father was about to beat him up… Was that why he was such an ass all the time? Family issues? Or was it—

All of a sudden, Snape flicked my out like a cobra and snapped me back to him in a perfect turn. God, I needed to focus! Who was the competitive dancer here? Oh yeah, me. I set my worries aside, putting all of my energy into showing Snape up.

The song was nearing its end; I had to move fast. I flicked my right leg out, rond-de-jambeing it around as I pliéd low. His eyebrows rose in surprise as I snapped myself back to him, letting Severus rotate us around two more times before stopping him, developing my leg up into the air, his eyes staring at it in wonder.

The music ended as I lowered my leg. The crowd clapped, and I knew that even though I had detention for a week, it was worth it.

Alejandros met me on the side of the dance floor. "Vell," he said after a moment's pause. "I see vhy you vanted to dance vith him and not me."

Men. They're so territorial.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't even go there. I bet him he couldn't dance. He said he could and, well… I now have detention for a week."

Alejandros raised an eyebrow, feigning annoyance though I knew he was relived I hadn't ditched him for an old guy. "That vas not very smart of you."

I snorted. "Don't I know it." A flash of annoyance shot through me then, but it wasn't my own. Without actually knowing how, I recognized Hermione's pain… "Excuse me."

I pushed my way through the crowd, past Gryffindors who commented on my bravery in dancing with Snape, to Slytherins who jeered at me for touching a teacher. I was starting to wish I'd programmed a GPS into Hermione's dress when I heard her frantic voice. "That is just ridiculous!"

"It is not!" I sighed, picking up the pace. Oh good, it was Ron saying something stupid. What a shock. "You're dancing with the enemy!"

Rounding the corner, I came across the fighting friends. Hermione's eyes were wetter than normal, while Ron's face was red with anger. "Okay, kiddies. Break it up!"

Ron scowled. "We were just talking."

"Right, well sorry, but I need Hermione to come to the bathroom with me," I said as I gently pulled her away. "You know Girl Rule number one: girls never go to the bathroom alone."

We rounded the corner, leaving Ron behind. I marched the shook up brunette down a hallway before pulling her into an alcove. "Alright, what's wrong?" She sniffed, saying nothing. The tears were threatening to fall from her face. "Don't you dare cry on me, Hermione. Your mascara isn't waterproof, and I am _not _redoing your make-up if you screw it up."

My taunt had the desired effect as she laughed at my terseness. She sniffed one more time before shaking her head. "I'll be fine. Ron's just being an idiot, is all."

"Are you sure," I said gently, putting all jokes aside for the moment. "You want to go back in?"

She laughed again, whether in irony or in actual humor, I wasn't sure. "Of course. After all, Victor's waiting for me."

* * *

"So. Are you having fun?"

It was later in the evening. The ball was due to end in less than an hour, and Alejandros had taken it upon himself to walk me around the grounds. Of course, it would be naïve to assume that was all he had in mind, especially considering that he had his arm around my waist…

I smiled, looking up at him through my eyelashes. "Of course. You have been a lovely date."

He raised an eyebrow. "Just a date? Vhy, I vas under the impression I vas a lot more than a date."

He stopped walking, standing in front of one of the marble statues that adorned the front lawn of Hogwarts for the evening. Ivy grew on the creation, the vines intertwined like my hand was in Alejandros'. "Really," I whispered, leaning slightly closer to him as I talked. "And whatever would give you that idea?"

In answer, he leaned down, gently brushing his lips against mine. He pulled away quickly, gazing down into my eyes. "And vhat do you think of that?"

"Way too short." So I grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him back down to me.

* * *

"You're so stupid! I can't believe you'd say something like that about Victor!"

"Oh, so it's Victor now, is it! How dare you get so chummy with the enemy?"

I sighed, the sound of the two arguing voices bringing on a headache. Could those two ever get along? They were at a dance, for crying out loud; they didn't really need to talk to each other at all, just move to the music.

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"That he's the enemy? Maybe because, oh I don't know, he's competing against Harry! Do you want Harry to lose?"

I picked up the pace, passing groups of students saying good-night to their dates as the left the Great Hall and made their way back to their respective rooms. Finally, I made it through to see Harry and Ron standing awkwardly on one side, Hermione facing them in a blind rage.

"Of course I don't! Why would you say that?"

"Hey!" I cut in, not wanting to witness this painful spectacle any longer. "Ron, would you cut it out," I hissed. Jeez, the redhead was dense! There was a _reason_ I had pulled Hermione away from him earlier in the night when they had been fighting, and it wasn't because I couldn't use the bathroom alone like he seemed to think.

Hermione's head swiveled in my direction, her angry stare turning to a look of gratefulness. I noticed that her big brown eyes were filled with tears so close to falling, despite the great pain she seemed to be taking to hold them back. "Hey," I said quietly, grabbing her by the arm. "Let's go upstairs, okay? Give these two idiots some time to think about all the ridiculous accusations they've made." She nodded in agreement, allowing me to lead her up the stairs, leaving the two stunned boys behind.

* * *

"I hate him! I really, really hate him!"

I sighed, leaning back against the headboard of my four-poster bed. This wasn't anything new. Hermione had been bellowing out her hatred for Ron for the past half hour. The ranting hadn't stopped, though luckily the crying part had. All I really have to say is thank god Parvati and Lavender were still out doing what I assumed was something sketchy with some boys; they would have loved this drama.

"Hermione, he's a guy," I explained for the umpteenth time. I was still in my dress, but my shoes had long ago been kicked onto the floor by the edge of my bed. "Guys are naturally clueless. You can't forget that or you'll be undoubtedly disappointed."

"But why? Why did he have to open his big bloody mouth and ruin this? I was having so much fun…" she trailed off, throwing her weary head into her hands as she collapsed onto the bed besides me. I'd made her lose the dress back when the sobbing started, right after I'd done the charm Parvati taught me to remove make-up. Hermione was therefore currently dressed a hell of a lot more modestly than I was, her crimson knee-length nightgown bunching up around her thighs as she sat next to me.

I desperately wanted to change the subject; there was no way I wanted Hermione's first major time wearing make-up to be remembered as an evening that sucked because her idiotic best friend made her cry. So I focused on the last part of that sentence… "You were having fun with Victor, huh?"

To my surprise, she blushed, the red coloring making its way up her neck, pooling in her cheeks. "Uh-huh."

I raised an eyebrow, completely thrown by this change of events. "Okay. Spill. What happened?"

"Well…" she bit her lip, staring off at nothing as she contemplated her answer. "He was very sweet to me the entire night, very attentive. He only danced with me, he talked with me… he was very romantic."

"I sense there's more than that."

Her blush deepened, letting me know that I was spot on. "Well… later in the night as we went to take a break from waltzing… he sort of… kissed me."

My mouth dropped open. This was probably the _last_ thing in the world I had ever expected from Girl Scout Hermione Granger. "No way!" I shrieked, excitement pouring through me. "No freaking way!"

She laughed for the first time since Ron had so badly insulted her. "Yeah."

"So? How was it?"

By now, the bookworm's face was as red as a cherry tomato. She ran a hand through her tangled curls, futilely attempting to smooth them out. "It was very… sweet. He was gentle; there was no tongue even though I sensed he probably wanted more…" She shook her head. "I don't know. I'm not very good at describing these things."

"Was this your first kiss?" I asked curiously.

I was once again shocked as she shook her head. "No. I stayed with my grandmother last year over summer holiday for a month. One of the neighborhood boys… well he took a fancy to me."

"A summer fling, huh?" I smiled, glad to hear that Hermione knew how to live. I had always thought that she was just a nosy little know-it-all, but it was good to know I was wrong. It seemed an actual teenage girl lived beneath the façade of a studious student that she put on every day. Maybe because she was muggleborn, she felt that she had to prove herself by letting all of her muggle qualities go.

On the one hand, it was distressing to know that she forced herself to grow up so young; but on the other side, perhaps that's what made Hermione so wise. She wasn't afraid to grow as a person, no matter what she'd be letting go of.

"Yes," she said, nostalgia briefly flitting across her face before her focus returned to my eyes. "But enough about me. What happened between you and Alejandros?"

I gave her a concise run-down of the events of the night, though skepticism colored her voice as I finished speaking. "He just kissed you? Nothing more?"

I placed a hand over my heart, faking outrage. "Why Hermione! You think I'd go past first-base on the premiere date? How could you?"

She rolled her eyes at my dramatic behavior. "Oh, hush. I only ask because I know you. It wouldn't at all surprise me if you… went further with him just because."

My head rocked back and forth as I denied her accusation. "No. Truth be told, I don't think I'll ever sleep with Alejandros," I confided, biting my lip for a moment before continuing. "I know I may come off as kind of slutty, but I think sex should mean something, you know? That's why Ty was the only person I've ever…"

She nodded to me, her eyes holding a gentle understanding within them. "I know exactly what you mean," she whispered.

I smiled back at her. A shared understanding had passed through us; it didn't matter that I was left wondering just how she understood. For that one moment, we agreed on a subject that was deeper than whether or not Snape was an asshole. A bond was beginning to form that couldn't be broken, even when Parvati and Lavender stumbled drunkenly into the room a moment later.

* * *

Wow, so it's been forever since I've updated, huh? I am so sorry, but between dance team, taking online courses for high school in addition to regular courses and SAT prep, plus charity work and dance classes... Oh hell, do I even have a life?

For all of you still reading this, I promise you, I'm going to try very hard to make updates more frequent; now that I have a system down and am no longer freaking out about the three APs I'm taking, I should be good.

Hope you're all well! Let me know you're reading this by RERing: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... I really, really Love it!

Lurve for ever and ever (despite the lack of updates! Forgive me!),

-Selene


	13. Detention

The day after the ball had finally dawned on us all, the morning coming too soon for those of us who had spent the night dancing in the arms of a date. My legs felt weighed down with lead as I trudged to the Great Hall, an equally sleepy Hermione by my side.

I've always been rather good at bouncing back from nights of drunken insanity, but for some reason the innocent dance party the school had thrown was taking its toll on me.

Go figure.

Still, I fared better then some; Parvati and Lavender practically crawled to the table, their clothes disheveled as their faces betrayed the crankiness they were experiencing due to a wicked hang-over. I almost laughed at the sight of the two bimbo girls; I'd already been there, done that.

While I may have been physically tired, my mind was still on high alert. Just because I was in no shape to go for a ten mile jog around the lake, that didn't mean I was going to immediately crawl into my bed the second breakfast was over. No, break was still progressing, meaning there were no classes. I had just begun to map out the luxury that was my free time when a hand tapped me on the back and blew that notion to pieces.

Snape stood behind me, a scowl on his normally impeccable face. The dark circles underneath his eyes gave away the hangover he was experiencing, his hair slightly less immaculate than normal. He spoke. "Be in my classroom tonight at seven o'clock for the first of your detentions," he hissed seconds before he swept out of the room.

I blinked. So much for my good mood.

* * *

That night, I crept along to the dungeons silently, hoping to avoid confrontation with any Slytherins. The last thing I needed was to be brutally mocked minutes before my detention with _Snape_.

Thankfully, I made it down to the dungeons in one piece, running across nobody. I knocked on the door to the potions master's classroom, waiting for the foreboding "Enter." before opening the door.

Snape stood at a cauldron, his back to me as I strode up behind him. "Professor," I said stiffly. Silence. I fought the urge to roll my eyes in annoyance. Obviously he was going to take his sweet time doing whatever the hell it was he was doing, just to piss me off.

Great.

I'm not entirely sure how much time passed. Perhaps it was only minutes, though to someone as impatient as I, it felt like hours. Nonetheless, it was ages later that he finally turned around, fixing me with his impenetrable stare.

"Miss Nouvelli," he said icily, silently conjuring up a second cauldron. "You will be dictating a potion to me once more."

"Aye aye, captain," I muttered, grabbing the potions book from his outstretched hand.

His glare intensified, the dark look in his eyes increasing. "Ten points from Gryffindor!"

My eyebrows rose in wonder. "What did I do?"

"Your mockery is not appreciated, Miss Nouvelli," he said as he swept over to a locked cupboard. The lock fell away as he muttered a spell. "I am your superior, and you will treat me with respect."

I snorted. "Of course _now_ you require me to behave. Now that you're sober, that is."

He spun around, the vial he held tightly in his hand coming precariously close to spilling. "Don't you talk about things you don't understand," he hissed.

"Oh, I understand, all right," I said as my eyes narrowed. Where the hell did he get off, treating me like a two year old? I slammed the potions book onto a nearby desk. "I understand that you spent the whole day chugging Butterbeer so you could be drunk out of your mind for the ball."

His angry tirade halted abruptly as he blinked at me in astonishment. "Are you mad?"

"What?"

"Why in the name of Merlin would you think that?"

"Because Butterbeer is notoriously weak." I explained, rolling my eyes at his oblivious attitude. "You could attach a bag of it to your IV, and you'd _still_ stay sober."

He shook his head, taking a step closer to me. "First of all," he drawled. "If I felt the need to get, ah, what was it? Drunk out of my mind? Then I would drink _Firewhisky_, not Butterbeer."

"So wizards _do_ have hard liquor." I scoffed. "Of course Harry and Hermione would introduce me to the sissy stuff."

He glowered at me, bringing my attention back to the problem at hand. "Second of all, I most certainly was _not_ drunk. I was testing a new potion to debilitate one's enemies. Well… It doesn't incapacitate them, per say, but it does push them towards making the wrong choices; it acts as alcohol does in lowering inhibitions for the worse. As was proven by last night."

"Then the alcoholic smell on the breath…"

"A side-effect I'm attempting to rectify."

I sighed. So much for Snape being human. "Why would you choose to test it during the dance?"

"It isn't like I had anything better to do." And with that, he turned around again, once more pulling various vials and beakers from the cabinet.

But I couldn't just let that go. What exactly did he mean by he didn't have anything better to do. "You could have danced. Dumbledore, McGonagall… all of the other professors were dancing."

"Your point?"

"Well you know how to dance. As much as it pains me to admit it, you can dance very well. A lot of the idiots here don't know the difference between a foxtrot and the waltz. But you…" I shook my head, sliding on top of one of the desks. "Why wouldn't you want to show off?"

His hands never slowed as he continued to pull more and more bottles… "Of please. Minerva would have a coronary if she saw me dancing of my own free will. As it so happens, all of the professors were aware of my little experiment last night, ergo they are aware that it technically wasn't me dancing, which explains why they are all still breathing."

"I don't under—"

He spun around, his eyes dangerously dark as he glared at me. "Shut up, you insolent girl! Think, for once in your pathetic little life, just think! Did you see anyone asking me to dance before our little bet? Did you see a large queue of people lined up for the opportunity? Nobody wants to dance with me. Nobody wants anything to do with me!"

Silence filled the room, the uncomfortable meaning behind his strong words making their presence known. I thought back to the memory I saw last night as Snape held me in his arms…

_"What the _hell_ did you just do boy?" A tall man with a hooked nose and jet-black hair screamed._

_My focused turned as I saw an eight year-old with equally black hair huddled in the corner, fear running through his eyes as his father advanced on him…_

Did his poor childhood contribute to the man I saw today? Perhaps he wasn't actually an asshole in nature; maybe his father had just killed his self-esteem. Most men don't have a problem with asking other girls to dance, but Snape…

Whoa.

"Now," he said, anger shinning in his eyes. "Shut up and get to work. Or you will be in detention until the day you die."

* * *

Classes began again too soon. It felt as though the new school days jumped upon us unceremoniously, just to piss us all off. The luxury of free time was gone now, in its place work, work, and more work,

Nonetheless, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I trudged out of the castle Monday morning and made our way to Care of Magical Creatures. The sun beamed down on us a bit too strongly for my liking. The snow was beginning to melt a bit, despite the fact that it was mid-January and therefore still in the midst of the winter season. Despite the sun, the cold air bit at my skin, the pants we girls were allowed to wear in the winter not doing much to protect me from the cold.

I was so not in the mood to fight for my life against the skrewts; it was way too early in the semester for that. Surprisingly, it turned out that I didn't have to. When we arrived at Hagrid's hut, a woman was waiting for us in his place.

"I am Professor Grubbly-Plank," the stout woman said. "And I will be teaching you for the next few weeks."

"Where's Hagrid?" Harry asked, worry showing upon the Boy Who Lived's face.

"It doesn't matter," the sub said. "I will be your teacher for now. Today, we will be looking at unicorns—"

"But Hagrid's our teacher," Harry complained.

"But it doesn't matter," Grubbly-Plank snapped. "Now. Girls, gather around. Girls only, please. Unicorns don't like males."

Hermione and I stepped closer, leaving Harry and Ron behind to discuss the mystery that was Hagrid's whereabouts. Never mind the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about unicorns; the teacher said they liked women, so what could possibly happen?

I'm an idiot.

She led the horses out. The white beasts blended in with the snow. The sliver horns glittered, the sun bouncing off the shiny material and reflecting back at us. One of the unicorns whinnied, the sound light like the air.

"You may touch them gently, if you wish," Grubbly-Plank said.

I stepped forward, bringing myself up even with one of the magnificent creatures. I stared into its eyes as I reached out my hand, almost as if I were about to pet a dog. Cautiously, I placed my hand on the creature's nose…

And then it happened.

A calm, serene feeling washed over me; I suddenly felt happier than I had in a long time. So what if I had melted snow all over my Uggs? Big deal that it was freaking freezing outside. Life was wonderful, and being alive was—

A hand touched my shoulder, bringing me back to conciseness. I turned, startled to be facing Hermione's concerned look. "Are you all right?"

Was I all right? My mood had just been dramatically changed; I should know, I'm never blissfully happy. What the hell was going on with—?

All of a sudden, the unicorn hit my hand with her nose again. The tranquility returned, settling around me peacefully—

I jerked my hand back. Holy crap. Not again. This was just like the first day of Defense Against the Dark Arts, when the spider landed on my arm and I felt it's fear…

I backed away from the unicorn, ignoring Hermione's concerned look as I went to stand besides an oblivious Harry and Ron as they exclaimed over an article proclaiming Hagrid to be a giant.

How could this be happening?

* * *

Despite the intense freak-out the unicorn incident brought, I managed to put it all aside for a trip to Hogsmeade. The village was once again open to those of us third-year and up, and so despite my fear of all living things (besides humans), I decided to take the opportunity and go.

Of course, I couldn't go alone. Alejandros escorted me to the snow-covered village. The air was beginning to warm up now, no longer below deadly cold.

The two of us strolled through the town, hand in hand. I will admit, I was slightly put off by the outrageous amount of furs he had donned for the occasion, but I figured it was a Bulgarian thing.

The Three Broomsticks was crowded when we arrived, but then again, that was to be expected. Where else were all the high school students going to get their liquor?

We ordered, though Alejandros seemed surprised by my request. "A firewhisky? That is pretty strong stuff, you know."

I winked at him, tilting my head up so to better see him. "That's the point."

Surprise, surprise, firewhisky really _was_ strong; I could see why Snape said that would be his drug of choice if he wanted to get plastered. Of course, the bartender refused to serve me a second one, cutting me off after the first by proclaiming that I was still a student and therefore shouldn't be drinking.

If only she knew.

It didn't matter though. Alejandros and I soon left the pub, walking into the hills of Hogsmeade that surrounded the shrieking shack. "So," he said quietly, swinging my arm a little as we walked. "Vhat are your plans for after school?"

I blinked. "You mean after class?"

He chuckled, shaking his head slightly. "No, no. I mean after you graduate."

"Oh." I made a face, turning to look up at him. "It's a little early to be planning that crap, don't you think?"

He smiled ruefully down at me. "Maybe for you."

Shit.

How completely insensitive of me. I had totally forgotten that he was graduating this year! Jeez, just because I was still in school, that didn't mean everybody else was. I bit my lip. "That's right; this is your last year."

He grunted in response.

Okay then.

We walked along in silence for a few moments before I couldn't take it anymore. "So… Any plans?"

These seemed to be the magic words, for Alejandros opened up… in a bad way. Great. "My father," he hissed. "He vants me to vork with him in the Law Enforcement section of the Ministry of Magic." He growled, coming to an abrupt halt. "I have no desire to do so."

I put my hand onto his arm. "What do you want to do instead?"

His face softened slightly, those hard features disappearing as his laugh lines grew… "I vish to teach."

I blinked. Whatever I'd been expecting, it sure as hell hadn't been that. "_Really?"_ The frown was back; obviously he wanted a different reaction from me. I tried to recover. "That's great! I'm glad you found something that made you happy so soon in life."

He sighed. "It doesn't matter. My father vould never let me…"

"Hey," I said, hitting him on the arm. His mouth dropped open. Apparently, motivational violence is a purely American trait. "Is this his life or yours? If teaching means so much to you, than you'll find a way."

"But—"

"No buts!" I stepped closer to him, wrapping my arms around his neck so our faces were only inches apart. "You have to follow your dreams," I whispered. "Follow your dreams and see where they take you."

He smiled softly. "You are too good to me," he muttered before bringing his lips down to mine, kissing me, our cheeks flushed, in the cold winter afternoon of a Hogsmeade day.

* * *

Hey everybody! I know, I know, it's been two weeks, but good news! I just took the SAT! That means no more sixteen-hour-a-week prep courses! Yay for free time!

That being said, you can blame the SAT for this being posted so late; this would have been ready by Saturday if I didn't have to take it.

I hope you're all doing all right. You know how you can tell me? By RERIng: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and I Love it!

Lurve forever (especially now that the SAT is over!),

-Selene


	14. The Second Task

"Are you mad!"

Days later, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were in Charms class attempting to do one spell or another. Don't get me wrong; it's not like I purposefully went into class that day with the set goal of ignoring the lesson plan. No, things sort of changed once Harry dropped the bomb on us…

"You _just now_ figured out the clue? Harry, the second task is in a few days!" Hermione was livid, though whether it was because Harry had lied to her or because she couldn't believe he was really that stupid, I wasn't sure.

"Didn't you hear me," Harry hissed. "Someone's been stealing from Snape's cupboards!"

"So we've got a thief on our hands. Big deal." They blinked at me in surprise. Apparently, the idea of stealing was too Slytherin for the Goody-Gryffindors to even contemplate.

"But did you hear _what_ was being stolen?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded. "Of course. Boomslang skin, and… and… Oh dear."

Ron and I exchanged looks of cluelessness. "What?" he asked.

Hermione ignored him. "You don't think… You can't possibly think…"

"I do."

"Hey," I said, snapping my fingers in front of their faces. "Care to fill me in? What do you think?" Call me nosy, but it's a pain-in-the-ass to be left in the dark. Seriously, I know I am the new girl and all, but I was getting pretty peeved about not knowing what the hell was going on.

And apparently, so was Ron.

"Yeah," he contributed.

Such a man of many words.

"Think, Ron. Boomslang skin? Lacewing flies?" The redhead did nothing but continue to stare at his friends in confusion. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh honestly." She lowered her voice. "Someone is brewing the Polyjuice Potion."

That got a reaction. Ron's eyes went wide as he looked at Hermione in shock. "No!"

"What the hell is a Polyjuice Potion?"

As Harry launched into a retelling of his second year here at Hogwarts and the various acts of mischief he committed, I glanced out the window to gather my thoughts. Because of the eccentric events going on around me, it took me a moment to notice Moody creeping shiftily towards the Forbidden Forest.

* * *

"You know, on second thought, maybe Dumbledore _does_ want you dead." I muttered as I shifted through library books once more the night before the second task. "I mean, there's no way in hell you'll ever be able to breathe underwater."

"Thanks. Your confidence in me is overwhelming," Harry snapped sarcastically.

"Well sorry, but if you look at the facts—"

"Hey! What about a submarine?" Ron said, the excitement apparent on his red cheeks. Ron had joined our little study group; it had been just Hermione, Harry, and myself the first time around, now we had added help. I would have thought having a fourth person helping us in the research department would make everything easier, but we really weren't getting a whole lot done.

"And how is Harry supposed to learn how to operate one in an hour?" Hermione pointed out.

"Well if you guys had the internet…" I began. The Brits groaned. Having spent their teen years in the wizarding world, they really saw no need for a computer to even exist.

They were deprived of the glories that are IM and Facebook.

"Enough!" Hermione let out a deep sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose as if to prevent a headache. "Maybe we should try something else. There's got to be something we're missing; they wouldn't give you the task if it were unworkable."

Harry opened his mouth, whether to argue to agree I'll never know. At that moment, McGonagall called out. "Miss Granger! Mister Weasley!" We turned, facing the Deputy Headmistress in surprise. We were in the library, after all; it wasn't like we were doing anything wrong. "Come with me please."

"But we—"

"Now." She turned on her heel, and began to walk out of the room.

Hermione, never one to disobey a teacher, shrugged and followed, striding quickly after her mentor. Ron, on the other hand, turned to Harry. "We'll be back as quickly as we can, mate."

Harry smiled softly at his best friend, glad to have his support. That was when my stomach clenched as a deep feeling of fear settled over me: they weren't coming back.

* * *

I think I dozed off a few hours before Harry did. Don't get me wrong; even though the research was boring as hell, I wanted to help Harry stay alive. No, what knocked me out was the trance I kept attempting to go into.

After Hermione and Ron left, I had tried to get back to the task at hand, but the absolute certainty that they weren't coming back was a constant distraction. Eventually, I just stopped trying to solve Harry's problem altogether, trying instead to figure out what had happened to my other friends.

For the first time in my life, I had trouble seeing the future.

No matter how hard I concentrated, no matter how much I prayed for the connection to be made, what was going on with Ron and Hermione was always just out of reach. Maybe it was because I was unusually tired; I _had_ just gotten back from a rigorous dance rehearsal before rushing off to read all night. Maybe it was because of the constant fear that filled me as I worried for my friends' lives.

Maybe it was because I was losing my touch.

Nonetheless, I woke in the library next to Harry, having stayed there all night, as a house-elf leaned over him and tried to get him to take something…

What the?

I sat bolt upright, staring in awe at the creature. "What the _hell_ are you doing?" I asked, my voice laden with sleep.

The house-elf (Dobby, I think his name was) said nothing, on account of the fact that Harry was suddenly talking a mile a minute. "Avery, we have to get down to the lake now! The task is about to start, and they've got Ron!"

* * *

"Are you sure it'll work?"

"Do I look sure?" he snapped as we jogged through the grounds. "It's not like I have a whole lot of choices here! Either the Gillyweed works or it kills me, but I have to do _something_ to save Ron!"

"And Hermione."

Harry stopped running, even though he was late. "What do you mean 'and Hermione?"'

I don't know why I'd even said it; it's not like Harry needed the added stress of knowing that _both_ his best friends were in mortal danger. But all of a sudden, I knew just where Ron and Hermione had gone last night. "She's down there too," I whispered, the information suddenly flooding my brain as I realized it. "For Victor."

Harry swore and took off towards the lake again, this time in a full-blown sprint.

* * *

Let me tell you, the decision to hold the second task under water: yeah, that may have _seemed _like a good idea at the time, but I was about ready to strangle the genius that came up with it. Why, you may ask?

_Because we couldn't see anything!_

Everyone had gathered on floating towers that hovered above the waters of the lake, the waters, I might add, that happened to be a murky brown in coloring.

Which means it was freaking impossible to see through!

Fred, George, Alejandros, and I stood huddled against the railing of one such barge, silently leaning over in the hopes that the water would magically become clear and we could stop worrying about what was happening to our friends below.

Almost an hour in, ripples finally appeared along the surface of the smooth lake… suddenly, Cedric Diggory burst from the depths of the water, his arm clutched tightly around the waist of the Asian girl he'd taken to the ball…

I bit my lip as next to me I heard Alejandros sigh in frustration. I just wanted to get this over with. Where the hell was Harry? Had he been hurt? Was he lost? Did the Gillyweed…

As I was pondering the potential fate of my friend, the water was disturbed again as Fleur broke to the surface, gasping for breath as she doggy-paddled her way towards a barge… alone.

Where the hell was her hostage?

Nervous murmuring broke out among the contestants. The hour was up now, Victor and Harry were still gone, and Fleur's loved one… they were still missing.

"Vhat will happen now?" Alejandros muttered, fear evident in his voice.

"I don't know," Fred responded with a shake of his head. The twins seemed to have forgotten their distaste for Alejandros due to their fear for the Golden Trio.

George began to speak. "Maybe—"

But that was all he got out before the surface broke again, this time hailing to a man with a shark head and Hermione Granger. If anyone else was alarmed by this, they hid it well. Personally, I was about to start spazzing out due to the sudden turn of events, but then Alejandros grinned. "Thank Merlin! Victor's back!"

Sure enough, the shark head was slowly but surely transfiguring itself back into the Bulgarian boy as he helped to tow Hermione towards our tower. I hurried around to the edge of the barge, reaching down to help pull her up.

"You okay?" I asked, grabbing one of her hands as Fred grabbed the other. We yanked, heaving her out of the water and onto the platform.

"N-Never b-b-better."

The school nurse appeared in an instant, wrapping Hermione and Victor up in fluffy red towels. I retreated back to the railing, leaving the doc to fuss over her patients in peace.

Alejandros was busy interrogating Victor about the nuances of the task, so it was just Fred, George, and I left at the railing, eagerly scanning the water for any sign of Harry. "Where is he?" I muttered.

George shook his head, slipping his fingers into mine in a gesture of comfort. "I don't know."

Harry was officially the last champion in the water. As it was, he was well outside the allotted time for the competitors to retrieve their friends. What went wrong?

All the while I was worrying my ass off about Harry and Ron, a small part in the back of my brain was inquiring as to how this had happened. I mean, I had become friends with these people. I actually _wanted_ them to be safe and happy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cold-hearted bastard or anything. But… these people weren't just friends anymore; they'd become like family. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Fred and George. Ginny. They had to all be safe.

I _needed _them to be safe.

That was when Harry finally drifted to the surface, towing a stunned Ron and a shocked little blond girl with him.

* * *

"I still can't believe he hung around waiting for the other champions to come. He totally had the lead and he blew it!" I complained, running a brush through my dark hair.

"Well what do you expect? This is Harry we're talking about; he has a saving-people complex."

I laughed. "True."

It was a few hours after the task, the time Hermione and I had deemed it appropriate to slip away from the victory party down below and escape to the less-lame-and-rowdy dorm upstairs. We currently sat on my bed, the room deserted except for the two of us.

Hermione bit her lip. "Can I… Can I tell you something?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Well if you have to ask for permission, it must be pretty big. What's up?"

"Victor…" she hesitated, trailing off for a moment as she stared unseeingly as my crimson comforter. "Victor sort of invited me to stay with him over the summer."

Now _that_ shocked me.

"What!"

She nodded. "It took me by surprise too."

"Well?" She cocked her head to the side, apparently unfamiliar with what I was asking. I rolled my eyes. "What did you say?"

"Oh! Well, I said yes of course." She frowned. "But I'm not sure if I should've."

"Are you insane? A hot guy just asked you to spend the _summer_ with him. In _January_! Granted, that's a little early and therefore kind of creepy—"

"I don't want to sleep with him," she blurted out, causing me to stop in my tracks. "And I'm worried that he'll take my affirmation that spending summer with him is a good idea will mean that I've consented to… that."

Oh. Well that's different.

"Hermione-" I stop, unsure of what exactly to say. I'm reminded instantly of that conversation between the two of us that occurred the night of the ball… "Just how far have you gone with a guy before?"

She sighed, refusing to meet my stare. "Farther than you'd think, but not all the way," she whispered.

"You don't want to talk about it," I inferred. She shook her head. "That's fine. Then we don't have to talk about it."

She finally met my gaze, and I was surprised to see the tears that were welling up in her eyes. "I… It ruined our relationship. The boy from the summer and mine. Glen's and my…" she trailed off before shaking her head and coming to her senses. "I just don't want that to happen between Victor and me."

"Then you need to talk to him," I murmured, hugging her to make her feel better. "Talk to him, and everything will be okay." Of course, talking is _never_ the cure to anything. Actions are.

But she didn't need to know this now.

* * *

Thus ends the second task. How have you guys been doing? Are any of you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I totally am! I'm so pumped; I have my story picked out and everything!

And guess what you guys. Only one more month until I get a laptop! Yep, that means only one more month of hard-backed chairs and crooked desks as my computer slows down, freezes, restarts, slows down, freezes, restarts... The cycle will end!

What did you guys think of this chapter? Not too bad I hope, even though there's no magnificiant Snape! Let me know by RERing: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... gotts Love it!

Lurve you all forever more,

-Selene


	15. Life Goes On

The aftermath of the second task was to be expected. The hordes of those hungry for gossip pertaining to the Triwizard Tournament swarmed the hostages of the champions. Ron in particular took a fancy to the attention, and he spent a great deal of time exaggerating the events of the night he was taken.

Of course, he also used it to pick up girls.

Suddenly, Padma Patil was a lot more interested in the redhead than she had been the night of the Yule Ball, and coincidentally enough, Hermione's bad mood had been increasing as Ron and Padma spent more time together...

Then again, her mood could also have been due to what happened in Snape's class a few days after the task. I don't know how it happened; one minute I was in bliss, brewing a memory potion and the next, Malfoy had thrown a magazine at Hermione and went back to his snickering.

I'm sad to say that I'm the moron that thought nothing of it. So Malfoy read the tabloids, was that really a shock to anybody? No, it wasn't until Hermione gasped that I looked up from chopping the roots, leaning closer to the trio. "What?" I hissed.

In answer, Hermione shoved the article under my nose as Ron berated her. "You see? You see what happens when you annoy Rita Skeeter?"

I don't know if Hermione saw, but _I _sure as hell did. The entire article was about how fickle she was, choosing Harry, then Viktor as she messed with both boy's hearts... The poor girl had been trashed in the piece; her reputation, to be colloquial, was shot. They even went so far as to question her integrity about whether or not she was using Love Potions.

"This is bull," I said at last, looking up from the magazine.

Only apparently, I had missed something. As I looked up, Ron was staring at Hermione in openmouthed horror. "You're going? Seriously? To spend the summer with dear old _Vicky_?"

"Ron, stop judging people. Viktor is _not _a bad person, and you should-"

"Stop discussing personal matters in my class, Miss Granger," a smooth voice rang from behind us. I turned with a sigh to see that he was standing mere inches away from me. "I'll take that, Miss Nouvelli," he said, grabbing the magazine from my hand.

"My, my, my. What have we here?" A sardonic smirk graced his features as read aloud the title. "_Harry Potter's Secret Heartache_. Well Potter, it does appear that you've been busy."

The Syltherin's laughed as they settled down for what was sure to be a fantastic Harry Potter roast. As Malfoy flashed his POTTER STINKS badge in support of Batman, something inside me snapped. Who the hell did he think he was, embarrassing Harry and Hermione both like that?

I waved my wand under the table, pointing it at the magazine. I didn't know what I was doing. Hell, truth be told, I didn't even know what it was I hoped would be accomplished by my random wand waving, but I couldn't think straight. He was cruel, so cruel, and I didn't want that article to be read...

Which is why I was completely shocked when the magazine burst into flames of it's own accord, without any spell from me. My eyes widened. Did I do that? Had my list of powers just grown even further? Was I never going to need matches again to light my birthday candles? I wasn't sure, but I _was_ certain that whatever it was I'd just done, I had no idea how it had happened.

Snape, sadly, was not aware of this. Oh sure, he quickly put out the flames, but even quicker than that he had spotted me with my wand out under the table. "Miss Nouvelli," he hissed, his black eyes almost glowing with the anger that radiated through him. "How dare you! Fifty points from Gryffindor! And a weeks detention. Maybe_ that _will keep you from scorching evidence."

It was then that I surprised everyone in the class by smiling. Yeah, I had detention, and sure my house probably hated me for losing all those points. But I had succeeded in destroying the shameful evidence. With magic. My friends would not be humiliated by these bastards. As Snape separated the four of us to keep us from talking, I couldn't help but feel for the first time that I really, truly belonged here.

Nevertheless, as class ended, I was not given the opportunity to bask in the glow of my accomplishment for long. No sooner had I exited the dungeons then I was kidnapped, Harry taking one of my arms and Ron grabbing the other. Hermione led the way, charging down the corridor, away from the masses and deeper into the solitude of the castle despite my protests.

Finally, she stopped. Pulling her wand out, she tapped the knob of the door in front of us, muttering quietly under her breath before pushing the door open and striding through. Ron and Harry followed, dragging me after them. They let go and I spun around in time to see Hermione shutting the door tightly behind us, waving her wand before it as she relocked the wooden object that blocked my freedom.

I sighed, turning slowly to face the two boys. "Okay," I said at last. "What's this all about?"

"What's this about? You set _fire_ to something Snape was holding! Are you mental?" Ron asked with wide eyes.

"More importantly," Hermione cut in. She walked around me, her footsteps falling lightly on the stone floor as she paced. "How did you do that? You didn't utter a spell, you hardly moved your wand... You don't have another... hidden talent, do you? One I don't know about?"

Ron cocked his head to the side in confusion. "_Another_ hidden talent? There was a first one?"

Harry, on the other hand, never allowed his gaze to waver from my own. As his eyes stayed locked with mine, I could see the wheels turning, see him processing it all, remembering...

All of a sudden, his eyes widened. "No way," he muttered. "But that's... You can see the future!"

Ron's head snapped sharply to face Harry's. "What?"

I raised an eyebrow. "And how, might I ask, did you stumble upon that conclusion?"

"Right before the second task. You knew Hermione was a hostage too... I didn't even think... There's no way you'd have known if you hadn't been able to see the future."

So that made two people that knew my secret. Well, three if you counted Ron, but he wasn't exactly Gregory House. My mouth curled into a modest smirk as I raised my eyes to look into Harry's. "Yeah," I said at last. "You guessed it. I can see the future."

Harry blinked in surprise, as if he was bewildered that he had guessed correctly. Suddenly, he made a face. "You're a seer and you're failing divination? What is wrong with you!"

"Hey! I wouldn't be failing if that idiotic hag had any-"

"That's besides the point," Hermione interrupted. "Avery, you tell me right now, how did you set fire to that magazine? Do you already know nonverbal spells?"

And there it was. The golden question, the one that would either make or break this friendship. Did I defy Dumbledore's demand that I keep silent by telling the trio, my friends? Or did I be a good little girl and follow orders, thereby carrying the weight of the prophecy all alone? All the while, Fred Weasley's words rang in my head... _"You can't trust anyone at this school. Not anyone except for us and Dumbledore."_

Well, I've never been one to comply with the demands of my superiors...

So it was with a sigh that I spoke. "Have you guys ever heard the prophecy of the Ultimate Power..."

* * *

So they know.

It felt bizarre to me; after all of this time, after so many months of carrying the burden virtually alone, the three musketeers knew. They took it pretty well, too. I mean, yeah Hermione immediately ran off to the library to do research, and Ron stared at me as if I was from Mars, but that was all to be expected. Harry's reaction, however, was to start laughing, and to say he was very glad that he was no longer the only one weird stuff was happening to.

Glad to know he's sympathetic.

Of course, Harry was quick to order my silence, telling me that it would be utterly ridiculous for me to let anyone else in on my little secret, and I couldn't help but agree with him. I didn't want the trust I had just bestowed upon the trio to be in vain, so after I swore them to secrecy, we parted ways.

It's not like I _wanted_ to leave the slacker city that was hanging out with Harry and Ron. No, I just had so much to do before my detention with Snape...

Snape. Boy was he a funny character. At times (like when I was having cryptic visions) he seemed almost human. When we danced together, he was so gentle... And then he tries to humiliate someone out of spite, and it's like I'm looking at a different person.

Even though I knew the sweet professor could exist, I had to constantly assume that the complex man would take the form of the hard-ass bastard that taught our class. So it was with that knowledge at hand that I steeled myself up before knocking on the door to his classroom.

"Enter."

I rolled my eyes as I pushed the door open. I'd probably had detention with him fifteen times this year by that time, and every single night he greeted me the same. Couldn't he be a little more creative?

"So what?" I asked as I stalked into the room. "Am I dictating again?"

Snape was, unfortunately, hard at work spilling the blood of his quill all over some poor kid's essay when I walked in, so my interruption only served to increase his already foul mood. His head snapped up so his gaze met mine. "Absolutely not. You've gotten far too comfortable with your simplistic detentions."

I cocked my head to the side, walking forward slowly as I did so. "Simplistic? I thought I was the only student _capable_ of doing that job."

He sneered, his lips pulled back in anger as he stood. "Well that was before you proved to be just as thick-headed as the rest of your classmates by setting something I was holding _on fire._ I have half a mind to go to the headmaster, you know."

I shrugged. "Go right ahead. It's not like I meant to do it."

This seemed to throw him for a loop. His eyebrows raised in a slightly sardonic manner, and he asked, "What are you talking about?"

"It was an accident. A complete and total accident... Hell, I don't even know if I could do it again."

He scoffed, gliding over to his cupboards as he did so. "I don't believe you."

"Well it's true! You think I have a handle on all this "Ultimate Power" crap yet? Because I don't."

He turned slowly, his eyes no longer holding the malice I had grown used to. Instead, a thoughtful look had taken hold, almost like he was curious about something... "What can you do?"

I shrugged, moving to sit upon one of the desks. "See the future, mostly. It used to be something I couldn't control, but now I've pretty much got it down pat."

A smirk slithered onto his face. "You can see the future, and yet you fail divination."

I groaned. "You sound like Harry!"

Snape, it appeared, did _not_ like to be compared to Harry in any way shape or form. His eyes grew hard as he snapped, "What else."

"Well, I've read minds before... only once though, during the first task, so it's not like _that's _a daily occurrence. Um... I saw the past once instead of the future," I confessed, my memory of his painful childhood flashing before my eyes. I shuddered. "That was a bit trippy. Oh, and then there was this thing with a spider where I felt it's fear... And then another thing with a unicorn in which I felt it's serenity."

I was surprised as Snape's eyebrows rose; he appeared to be astonished by my admission. "You can read the emotions of others?"

"Feel them, actually," I corrected. "It was the most bizarre thing. One moment, I'm hating you for besting me in our little Yule Ball bet, the next I'm petting a unicorn and ready to hold hands with Malfoy and sing Kumbaya."

He let the remark about my hating him slide, as he prompted me again. "Anything else, Miss Nouvelli?"

"Not that I can- Oh yeah! I can also turn into a shadow at will," I said happily. Jeez, I had totally forgotten about _that_ one... Come to think of it, how the hell did I ever get caught doing anything wrong in this place? Any time I broke the rules, I should have just turned into a shadow and escaped!

God I'm an idiot.

He blinked. This, apparently, was something he had _not_ expected. "I beg your pardon?"

A crooked smile crossed my face as a devious notion wormed its way into my mind... "Oh, you know," I said casually. All of a sudden, I shifted, dropping into the darkness that I had avoided for so long. I moved quickly, barely giving myself time to see Snape's eyes widen in surprise before I was behind him, materializing again to tap him on the shoulder.

He spun around, his wand now in his hand as he demanded, "How did you do that?"

Once again, I shrugged. "You kidding? I wish _I _knew."

He glared at me as he shoved his wand back into the contours of his robe, angry at me for one-upping him. He stepped back, his eyes never leaving mine as he studied me. Finally, he spoke. "You need to learn to hone your powers."

I snorted. "No shit, sherlock. I could have told you that."

His eyes narrowed, but he said nothing about my cheek. "Dumbledore doesn't have the time to teach you. Nor does McGonagall."

I rolled my eyes. "Your point?" And then I got it. My mouth dropped open, surprise flooding through me as if the Hoover Dam had been released. "You... Are you... No! _You_ want to teach me?"

He sneered. "Don't be so naive as to believe that I _want_ to. But if you continue to strut about setting _fire_ to people, than one day, someone is going to notice. For the safety of you, as well as me, you must be trained."

He began to pace, and I closed my eyes, dreading the worst. "You are to meet me here, Mondays and Wednesdays at seven o'clock sharp every week. We will work together, first catching you up in all your classes, and then working to develop your skills further."

"Uh, that sounds great, but I can't do Wednesdays," I said sheepishly.

He snarled. "And why, in the name of Merlin, not?"

"Friction meets on Wednesdays," I explained, though I felt I was wasting my breath. Why the hell would he care? "We only meet four times a week, and since we're in the middle of competition season, we really have to have the Wednesday practice."

"Move it."

"We can't. It's the only time we can get studio space."

Silence. I waited for my death sentence, hoping for the best yet expecting the worst. He spoke. "I will appease you on this issue, and this issue _only_. I refuse to work with you when you are surly, therefore you will come to these meetings in a cordial mood, due to the fact that I made an allowance for your schedule. We will meet on Thursdays instead. You will tell your classmates that I gave you infinite detentions on Mondays and Thursdays for the rest of the year. You will not stray from this alibi. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," I said, all the while believing that this was probably the _weirdest_ conversation that I had ever had in my entire life.

He stared at me for a moment, perhaps gauging my sincerity, before he ceded. "You are dismissed."

* * *

The next day met me with sunshine and a trip to Hogsmeade. Though I had been expecting the arduous journey into the local town, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione met me at the gate with a bag of food, I was more than a little surprised.

"We're going on a picnic?" I asked as we started down the path.

"Avery, we're going to be honest with you," Harry said solemnly, speaking softer than I would have thought the situation warranted. Obviously something was going on that he wanted to keep on the DL. "Since you told us the truth about you yesterday... Well, now I have something to share with you."

"What-"

"Oh Merlin, just follow us," Hermione huffed, always the impatient one.

And so we went, hiking past Dervish and Banges, a few houses, and even a local pub called The Hog's Head, until finally we stopped... "Hello, Sirius," Harry said, halting right in front of a big black dog. The shaggy creature wagged its tail, almost as if it were about to jump on the trio in excitement.

I raised an eyebrow at the thing as at last it spotted me, its ears flatting back in caution. "You wanted to show me the family pet?"

But Harry ignored me, speaking to the freaking dog instead. "It's okay, Sirius. You can trust her."

Really? He had to explain my presence to a _mutt_? What was wrong with this picture? Nevertheless, the dog approached me cautiously, moving his head from side to side as if he were glancing around him before he sniffed, taking in my scent. I held up my hand, slowly moving it to lay on the top of his head. "There you go, boy," I said as I stroked his ears. "Who's a good puppy? Your owners should have named you Pluto, not Sirius because you're as sweet as Mickey's dog."

I could have sworn the dog started to laugh as it pulled away.

"C'mon," Ron said, following after the mutt into a rocky patch of earth. "It looks like we've got quite a hike ahead of us."

And that we did. It must have taken half an hour for us to climb all those rocks. That's not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but when you're chasing after a _dog_ for crying out loud...

At last, the pup stopped in front of a narrow crack between two boulders, pausing just long enough for him to see us before squeezing in through the opening. Harry immediately followed after him. "You've got to be kidding me," I muttered before forcing myself through the crack as well.

The place was trashed. On one end of the cave, slept one of those things Hermione told me about in Care of Magical Creatures, what was it? A hippogieous? Whatever. Let me tell you, they are scary looking! The thing was out cold, and I _still_ thought it was going to eat me. Feathers were strewn around the room, as were rolled up newspapers, bones, and scraps of some part of an animal that I really didn't want to think about.

There was also some guy.

His dark eyes were hooded with an untrustworthy scowl, his black hair long and shaggy as if he really needed a haircut. A thick layer of dirt permeated his skin, and his clothing was it tatters.

"Where'd the dog go?" I whispered to Hermione as she straightened up besides me.

"Don't you remember anything that Professor McGonagall has taught you?" she preached as the man grabbed the bag of food from Harry. "He's an animagus."

My eyes widened as he began to devour the chicken. "Freaky."

The man looked up then, seeming to remember I was there. "Who's she?" he said in a gruff voice.

"That's Avery," Harry said, taking the role of the MC as he introduced us. "Avery, this is Sirius Black. My godfather."

I nodded at him, not quite ready to get any closer, lest he be a serial killer of some kind. "Sweet digs you've got here," I said with sarcasm. "You couldn't afford anything with a door?"

But he just stared. "She's an American," he said hoarsely. He turned abruptly to face Harry. "What's an American doing here?"

"Well, to make a long story short, she's the Ultimate Power," Harry explained as my eyes widened. "I don't know if you've heard the prophecy, but-"

"Hey!" I interrupted, hitting him on the arm. "What the hell is wrong with you? _You_ were the one who swore to take my secret to the grave! Unless you plan on doing a murder suicide thing, then-"

"Sirius won't tell anyone, mate," Ron cut in.

I turned to the ginger. "And why is that?"

Harry smiled ruefully. "Because he's wanted for murder."

Oh. That was a good reason.

* * *

"I can't believe I rubbed your head," I moaned into my hands from my spot on the cave floor. "Oh god, that must have been terribly awkward for you."

He shrugged. "Actually, it felt quite good." I lowered my hands from my face, giving him a look of disbelief. He burst out laughing. "Not in _that_ way. It's just nice to have human contact... Especially a human whose mind seems to be as twisted as my own."

Somehow, I viewed that as a compliment.

Sirius shook his head, his long unruly black hair flying crazily as he did so. "To think, after all these years the Ultimate Power emerges... Merlin, how bizarre."

"And I can't believe _you_'ve come back to Hogsmeade!" Harry proclaimed. "What if you're caught?"

"I won't be," Sirius said, full of confidence as if he were a teenage boy about to ask his fiance to prom. There was no _way_ she would say no... Right? "Besides, I needed to keep an eye on you. And on Crouch."

Apparently, Barty Crouch, the dude from the Tournament, was dying. Or something, Nobody was really sure, and it caused a great deal of panic between the three amigos besides me.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I don't know, Sirius. Crouch being deathly ill and nobody at Hogwarts knowing about it is as likely as your theory that Ludo Bagman was the one that conjured the Dark Mark."

Sirius grimaced. "Well it would be a lot easier if I knew anything about Bagman other than that he used to play Quidditch."

"But you still think something bad is happening with Crouch?" Hermione prompted.

Sirius frowned in thought. "Yes I do. Crouch was never one to miss work. Ever. He's ruthless and hard-core. He'll never quit or back down, whether he's right or wrong, and his work is no exception... Something's not right."

I snorted. "You sound like you're talking about your ex."

Sirius faced me, his brown eyes narrowing in thought. "I sort of am," he confessed suddenly. Hermione gasped besides me, but then Sirius amended. "He was the one that sent me straight to Azkaban without a trial."

Hermione's mouth set itself into a hard line. "But that's illegal! How could he do that?"

Sirius shrugged. "You don't understand what things were like back then, Hermione. People were dying. Everyone was scared... So afraid of Voldemort..."

His voice washed over me. There was only natural lighting surrounding us, yet I could feel the light flicker, and suddenly, I was no longer sitting in a dusty cave surrounded by rat carcasses. No, I was living in a time of war, a time of tragedy...

_"She's dead," a man said solemnly. His brown hair was unkempt and dark circles lived under his eyes, as if he was Rip Van Winkle and sleep was just a rumor. "Dorcas. They got to her."_

_A sob rang out from behind me, and I spun to see a younger Sirius comforting a woman with bright red hair and familiar, dazzling green eyes... "No... No!"_

_"Lily," Sirius cooed. "It will be okay. We'll get him in the end-"_

_"James is out there! He'l find James! And then-" Sobs wracked her thin frame, as once again tears fell from her face._

_"Remus," Sirius said, withdrawing from the quaking woman after a moment's pause. "Find James. Bring him back here now."_

_The man named Remus protested. "But he's out looking for Maria. She disappeared last week, and he-"_

_"Just do it!" Sirius snapped, glancing over his shoulder at Lily. "She needs to know he's safe. And so do I."_

Voices brought me back to the present, loud and grating as Ron shrieked, "His own son! Bloody hell!"

"What about his son?" I asked, attempting to get back into the conversation. "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening."

"His son. The Death Eater." Hermione frowned. "Weren't you paying attention to _anything_?"

But I just shrugged, trying to play the role of a ditz to hide the fact that I had the strangest feeling that the crying lady on the couch had been Harry's mother...

* * *

"It's been a pleasure meeting you," Sirius said, clapping my hand in his as he pulled me close for a hug. "Personally, I think Harry needs someone like you. He's too much of a good boy, not getting into nearly enough mischief."

"What do you call this tournament?" I asked.

He frowned. "Good point. Forget I said anything." He hugged Ron before quickly pulling away. I got the feeling he wasn't really into the whole guy on guy thing. "Check with Percy about Crouch," he prompted.

Ron rolled his eyes as Sirius hugged Hermione good-bye. "I know."

"Remember, call me Snuffles." He wrapped his arms around Harry, holding on tightly to his godson for a moment before pulling back. "Be good."

Harry smiled up at his godfather, the only living member of his family that he had left. "Don't worry. I will."

* * *

"Seriously? We're taking _another_ break? Guys, Regionals for Starstruck is in two weeks, and if we want to make Nationals we have to rehearse!"

"Darcy, we also have to not pass out from exhaustion," Tyler quipped, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

Our leader sighed, her features drawn together in a frown. "Fine. You have two minutes."

Ty and I moved immediately to the corner of the room with our water bottles in it as Anderson practically ran for the bathroom. "She's a bit narcissistic, that one."

"No kidding," I said, sitting against the mirror. "I always forget how evil she becomes right before competition. And this isn't even the biggest competition yet. We've already _made _Nationals for LADF, and that one has national recognition."

"Speaking of competition," Tyler said, pausing to take a swig from his gatorade bottle. "How's the tournament going?"

I shrugged. "Harry's tied for first. There's only one task left, which is great, I guess. Less time for him to get killed and all."

Ty raised an eyebrow. "You don't sound very optimistic."

And I wasn't. Sometime that day, between returning back to the castle from visiting Sirius in Hogsmeade and going to rehearsal, terror had fallen upon me, and I wasn't sure why... "I don't know," I said at last. "I just have a feeling that something really bad is going to happen."

* * *

"Good morning."

I smiled at Alejandros, my kind-of-almost-but-not-quite boyfriend. "Hey." He kissed my cheek before helping me into my seat at the Gryffindor table. "How'd you sleep?"

"Vonderful. Is it all right if I sit here?"

"Knock yourself out." I reached for the coffee pot. "You know, I wonder if the house elves can make mochas. They seem to have gotten the espresso down pat, do you think asking them to get fancy would be too-"

"Ouch!"

My head snapped to the right, following the sound as Hermione dropped an envelope oozing a greenish yellow liquid. Her hand began to bubble, boils sprouting up upon it...

"Holy crap," I said, jumping out of my seat. "Are you okay?"

"Bubotuber pus," Ron said, examining the envelope. "You better get to the hospital wing."

"Someone sent her pus in an envelope? What the hell is wrong with them!"

"Apparently, Hermione is a tramp who is messing with my heart," Harry explained as we started off for Herbology.

"It's that article Rita Skeeter put out!" Ron exclaimed. "You see? I _told _her. Look at what happened! Blimey."

I shook my head. "Well Skeeter's got influence over the wizarding population, that's for sure."

* * *

"Enter."

There it was again. The same old annoying command that I received every time I had detention with Snape. Though I confess that this was no ordinary detention. This would be the first of my special lessons with him.

Oh goody.

"Miss Nouvelli," he said, nodding at me. "I trust your friends believe you to be in detention."

"All but the Three Musketeers," I quipped. "But they also know about the Ultimate Power crap, so it's cool."

Snape scoffed. "It was not wise to tell Potter and his friends about your abilities."

"It's also not wise to trust you, yet here I am doing it," I reminded him. Walking fully into the room, I sat at the first desk. "So what's going to happen."

Snape stood, sauntering slowly closer to me. "I've spoken with your teachers. Hagrid believes you to be sufficiently caught up, as does McGonagall. Trelawney," he drawled. "Believes you to be a lost cause."

I rolled my eyes. "Stop laughing at the irony."

"Today, we shall begin by reviewing your knowledge of potions ingredients," He snapped, summoning a large tome of a book. "Once I believe you to be proficient in this subject, we shall move on to more mundane categories."

"Seriously? I'm one of the best brewers in the class! Hell, I even best Hermione at times."

"Do _not_ use that tone with me," Snape said, his mouth curling at the corners. "Ten points from Gryffindor. You will do as I say! Just because you can brew, that doesn't mean you know the properties of all the-"

"What do the properties matter if I can brew!"

"You won't always have instructions on the board! You must be able to improvise, and that means-"

"That I can use my special talents to see if my concoction will work."

"That's not how this subject works!"

"Well too fricking bad!" We stopped screaming, standing nose to nose in front of each other as we stared our enemy down. Finally, I stepped back. "This isn't going to work."

He sneered. "I agree completely."

I shook my head. "No. I mean we can't fight like this. As much as I enjoy our battle of wits, we have to at least pretend to be cordial while in these sessions. Otherwise nothing will ever get done."

I think my maturity level surprised him, because it took him a moment to answer. "Agreed. But you must trust that I know what I'm doing."

"And you've got to understand that I don't like being ordered around."

Silence rang out around us again, and I could tell that Snape was fighting back another sarcastic retort. "I still dislike you."

"The feeling is mutual," I assured him. "Now. What do you say we try this again?"

* * *

I found myself learning more and more from Snape than I ever thought possible. Yes the first couple of lessons with him were terribly trying, but by the second Monday we'd fallen into a steady pattern. I would arrive, we'd argue, and then he'd begin cramming information into my head.

It didn't take him long to grudgingly admit that I knew what I was talking about when it came to potions, and we both soon discovered that I was a quick study in Transfiguration. That just left Charms, Herbology, Defense Against he Dark Arts, History of Magic, and Divination left for me to catch up in, though Snape declared I was on my own when it came to the future-seeing crap.

Nonetheless, he had chosen to work with me on Herbology next because it stemmed closely from potions. While that _did_ make life easier when I had Sprout's class, it did nothing to help my dueling ability in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

However, it appeared that to Hermione, it didn't matter.

It was as Professor Moody broke us off into groups to try a new type of shield that the bookworm broached the subject of Rita Skeeter again. It was all she had been thinking about for the past week. She had been itching for some way to get revenge on the witch for all of the hate mail that she was now receiving.

"She's not using an invisibility cloak," Hermione complained. "I already asked Professor Moody! There just has to be some way-"

"Maybe you're bugged."

"What?" Ron asked.

"That could actually be it," I said thoughtfully. "All she needs is a tape recorder and-"

"It's not possible," Hermione interrupted, waving the thought away.

"Well just because you think it's unlikely-"

"No. I mean it's really not possible. Recording equipment doesn't work at Hogwarts; there's too much magic and it makes the electricity fail."

"That's not entirely true," I pointed out. "I have an ipod _and_ a computer upstairs that say otherwise."

But Hermione just shook her head. "But they aren't recording equipment. All of that is just to play things back. And even then, it's a complex bit of magic. It's a simple spell," she threw in as I opened my mouth to retort. "But it's complex magic. Because it's so complicated, any spell that is used on a recording device will just jumble up the sound. It will still work, but it would be virtually useless."

"So she can't be bugging you," Harry confirmed.

"Exactly."

"Well then there's got to be some sort of other explanation, right?" I asked, looking from Harry to Hermione and back again.

"Do we have to get involved in this?" Ron complained. "I mean, you see what she does. Do we really want the enmity that comes from snooping into Skeeter's business?"

"Well you don't have to help if you don't want to," Hermione snapped.

"That's not what I was saying."

"But it's what you meant!"

"Was not!"

"Was-"

A chill swept over me, a shiver running down my body and all the way to the tips of my toes. Suddenly, a deep voice rang out behind me. "Everything all right?"

I spun around to see the crooked grin of Mad-Eye Moody. He was leaning heavily to the right, as if his wooden leg was causing him to be off balance. "We're fine, Professor," Harry reassured him. "Don't worry."

"Then get back to work," Moody admonished. "We don't want anyone to be caught unaware, now do we? Remember, constant vigilance!" A slight tremor had crept into his voice, it suddenly sounded a lot higher...

I blinked at him, wondering if he was having a reverse puberty thing. But Moody just stared back, taking a swig of whatever was in his flask without breaking eye contact.

* * *

Starstruck's Regionals came and went, the competition going off without a hitch. It had been the last of the four competitions Friction had participated in, and we were now focusing on the four National competitions that were soon about to take place. Darcy was as sadistic as ever in her training schedule, but never had our routines looked so clean.

My lessons with Snape were going surprisingly well, too. Within three weeks of our lessons, I had officially caught up in Herbology as well, and we were now moving on to Charms. This, it seemed, was my Achilles' heel, for I had to work for hours just to achieve the simplest of spells.

"You are an idiot," Snape scolded, a scowl covering his features. "It's a simple shield charm. Professor Moody told me you worked on it last week in his class!"

"You think I was paying attention? I'm a teenager, remember?" I climbed off the floor from where I had fallen after one of his spells had made me lose balance.

"You think that's an adequate excuse? Again!"

And so the onslaught continued. For an hour he sent spells my way, throwing them at me from all angles and for an hour I was abused. I can't even begin to tell you how many things I ran into. The wall, a desk, the floor... Oh there were so many times I fell.

"Agh! What am I doing wrong?" I shouted from my place on the ground. "How come I can't get this?"

He sighed, bringing his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Maybe Dumbledore was wrong," he muttered as I stood. "Maybe you aren't the Ultimate Power. Maybe you just have some unique talents."

I winced as I stood. "You think?"

He shook his head. "Leave now. You're hopeless."

What charming words of wisdom. I'm so glad he believed in me so much.

Nevertheless, I was beat, and so I followed his orders, turning around to limp quietly from the room... And that was when I felt it. The charge of a spell, the energy cackling behind me. My eyes widened. Was he _seriously_ going to hit me when my back was turned? I didn't have time to think, I spun around, throwing up a shield, the only thought crossing my mind that I did not want to be on the floor again...

His spell was blocked. I had done it!

Snape nodded. "That's what I thought." A smile crossed my face. Thank god! My victory was short-lived, however. "Again."

* * *

"Oh, I'm sore," I complained to Hermione later that night. Snape had made me work on the spell for another hour after his sneak attack to make sure I had it down perfectly. "Geez, why does Snape have to be so rough?"

"It's a good thing Lavender and Parvati didn't hear you say that," the brunette said as she sat besides me on my bed. "Otherwise they would have taken that the wrong way."

I laughed. "I'm so proud of you," I said, reaching out to pinch her cheek. "I have finally corrupted your mind. My life is complete."

She rolled her eyes. "What a sorry life you've had, then."

"Ouch," I said, a mocking pained expression crossing my face. "That's a knife to the heart!" I leaned back, laying down completely on my bed as Hermione attempted to brush out her hair. "So where's Harry again?"

"He's in a meeting to learn about the third task. I hope he takes this one more seriously then he did the last," she said with a frown.

"It's not like he'd have to do much for _that_ to happen." I closed my eyes, a serene smile over my face...

_"Get up! Get up!" The young man kicked the figure huddled on the ground. "How dare you come back here? How dare you defile my orders!"_

_The young man kicked the gasping figure once more. "You... monster." The older man gasped._

_"Monster, am I?" He smiled, gazing down at the figure huddled at his feet. "Good-bye." He waved his wand. "Avada Kedarva!"_

_A bright flash of green light engulfed the body, and then Mr. Crouch stopped moving. The man waved his wand again, muttering something under his breath as he transfigured Crouch's body into a bone before picking it up and moving it deep into the Forbidden Forest-_

"Shit!"

I sat up, gasping for breath as the vision ran over me again. "Avery," Hermione called from her own bed where she had her books spread out in front of her as she studied. "Avery, what's going on?"

"Oh god," I muttered, bolting out of bed. I was at the door in a flash, ignoring Hermione as she attempted to follow me. I say attempted, because by the time I had reached door I had already shifted into a shadow.

I moved quickly down the staircase, and within seconds I was outside the Gryffindor common room, on my way up to Dumbledore's office. _Crouch is going to die_, I thought. _He's going to die!_ I flew through the corridors, my desperate desire to save him only overwhelmed by the fact that I couldn't tell who this man was. Who would want to kill an obnoxious old official? Was this a power play, or was something bigger going on?

I rounded the corner, reaching the statue that barred the entrance to Dumbledore's office only to find that I was not alone. "The headmaster is busy, Potter," Snape sneered, taking his time in addressing Harry.

"But it's important! Mr. Crouch is out there, and he's lost his mind-"

Oh shit. It was already happening. Moving even faster then I had before, I moved down the hall, materializing next to Harry. "He's right, sir," I said quickly as Harry gave a small yelp of surprise. "I just had a vision. Someone's going to kill him."

"What?"

"You had a vision," Snape asked, staring at me with curious eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure! How the hell could I _not_ be sure?"

"What's wrong, Severus," Dumbledore asked, appearing behind Harry from his office.

"It seems that Barty Crouch is about to be murdered," Snape said in a brisk manner. A feeling of dread settled over me as Snape began to hurry down the corridor with Dumbledore and Harry hot at his heels. "We must hurry-"

"It's too late," I whispered, the events replaying in my mind. "We're too late."

"What do you mean," Harry demanded.

"He's already dead. That man... He killed him."

Dumbledore's eyes closed briefly, as if he were mourning the lose of a friend, but Harry jumped immediately into action, running again for the entrance to the castle. "Potter!" Snape called. "Where are you going?"

"Viktor Krum was with him!"

My eyes widened. What? That wasn't possible, I hadn't seen... Dumbledore and Snape began to move, following the boy as they raced back towards the Forbidden Forest. I ran with them, using the momentum I was gaining to change into a shadow before I rocketed past them. In moments, I was beyond Harry and outside the castle doors, flying through the cool night air and towards the Forbidden Forest...

I stayed in my shadow form upon arrival; I didn't want to give myself away. In the distance, I could see the front doors bang open as Harry ran out of them. They would be here soon.

Krum was no where near the tree line. I couldn't detect him anywhere in sight, nor could I detect his killer. That was the good news. I closed my eyes, searching through my mind, delving into the future for where he could be found... And then I had it. A short ways into the forest he lay unconscious. I was besides him in a flash, my body snapping together as I pulled out my wand, ready to defend myself and the dead-to-the-world Quidditch star.

"Avery?"

"Over here," I yelled back. "I've found him!" Footsteps. I spun around, my wand pointed in their direction until I saw that it was just Harry and Dumbledore, Snape not far behind. "He's unconscious. I don't know what to do."

"Nothing," Dumbledore said, kneeling before the boy. "Was there any sign someone else was here?"

I shook my head. "Not that I could see."

"Should I get someone?" Harry asked, a small note of panic appearing in his voice.

"No," Dumbledore said sharply, exchanging a glance with Snape. "No, stay right here. Severus," he addressed Snape. "Get Alastor, tell him a student has just been attacked-"

"No need, Albus," a gruff voice called from behind. The _clunk_ of a wooden leg alerted me to the fact that Moody was approaching. "I ran into Diggory in the hall. When he said Potter hadn't come back yet, I knew something was up."

The cold feeling washed over me again, and I shuddered. What was going on? Why was this happening? I tried to scour through the future for an explanation, drawing my mind blank to aid the search but I came up with nothing. Why?

A hand lightly grabbed my arm and I jumped. "What is it," Snape said, leaning down slightly to look into my eyes. "What do you see?"

I shook my head slowly, my mind still cloudy from the forage through the future I had taken. "I... I don't know. I can't make anything out. I just... He's not gone," I said at last with certainty. "Whoever he is... He's still here. Among us."

Silence met my proclamation. At least, until Moody spoke, "What does she mean?"

"She's a seer, Alastor," Dumbledore responded as Snape let go of me. The desolate cold sent shivers down my spine, and Harry wrapped his arms around me as I struggled to breath. "She can see the future."

Moody chuckled. "She can see the future, yet she still fails divination."

"That's not the point," Harry said, choosing to bring attention to the obvious. "The point is she's given us some valuable information. He's still here."

Moody didn't say anything at first, remaining silent as he absorbed the meaning. Then at last, he spoke again, "How convenient."

* * *

"Where have you _been!_ Harry, you should have been back long ago and Avery! What were you _thinking,_ running off like that?"

Ron and Hermione were the only two left in the common room by the time Harry and I got back. "It's a long story," I said, collapsing into a vacant armchair by the fire.

"We've got time," Ron pointed out.

And so we told them. Well, Harry told them. I just listened and chimed in whenever I felt it was necessary to do so. Of course, once we had finished our little tale, the two of them had to bring forth their own theories, and so we spent the next _three freaking hours _talking.

I know. I wanted to kill them too.

Around four o'clock in the morning, Harry decided that now would be a good time to send Sirius a letter telling him what happened. Yes, now, Not in three hours when the rest of the world would be waking up, but now.

I was stuck pulling an all-nighter.

The conspiracy theories continued as we made our way up to the Owlery together. "We should go see Professor Moody," Hermione was saying as we entered the room. "Mayhaps he has an idea about where the murderer could be."

"If he did, then they would have gone after him last night," Harry pointed out.

"I don't know," I said slowly as Harry went off to find Hedwig. "There's something about Moody... Something that I don't like."

"Well I know he looks creepy, mate," Ron said. "But he's a brilliant wizard and a great auror."

"I know that, I do." I sighed in frustration. "At least, analytically I know that. It's just this weird feeling that comes over me whenever he's near. There's something about him that I don't trust... I don't know. Maybe I'm just paranoid."

"That's probably it," Hermione said. We watched as Harry sent Hedwig off, the letter tied to her feet. "Moody's been around the bend, you know. I wouldn't be surprised if your misgivings were a side effect of the mental anguish being an auror has caused him."

"Wait a second," Ron said, turning abruptly to face Harry. "Doesn't Moody have the Marauder's Map?"

Harry frowned. "Yeah, he does... He must not have had it with him at the time. Otherwise, it would have been easy to tell who killed Crouch and where the body was."

"But then why wouldn't he just do a summoning charm?" I asked.

"Well then maybe the murder was already outside the Hogwarts perimeter," Ron supplied. "Maybe they Apparated-"

"Ron, you can't Apparate on school grounds! There are charms-"

"Shh!" Harry said suddenly.

Voices rose in the distance. The four of us became still, not wanting to be caught by anyone. "I can't believe we're going to blackmail him."

"It's not like we have much of a choice! He's avoiding us, remember?"

"Yes but that seems so wrong-"

"It won't be once we get paid-" The door to the Owlery opened, and a moment later Fred and George Weasley stalked through. They paused at the sight of us, seemingly distressed that we had overheard them... "What are you doing up so early," Fred asked, immediately putting the spotlight on us.

"Uh, duh. We're sending a letter." As if we would be up in the quintessential mail room for any other reason.

Ron wasn't ready to just let them go, though. "Who are you blackmailing?"

Fred grinned, his freckled face stretching a little too far for genuine amusement. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm not daft, you know. Who are you blackmailing?"

"Ron, it's none of your business," George said, reaching for the nearest school owl.

"But-"

"Enough," Fred said as George released the owl into the sky, a letter attached to its foot. "Stop telling us what to do, Ron. In case you've forgotten, _we're_ older than _you_." With that they turned, leaving the room as quickly as they had come.

"They're mental!" Ron exclaimed. "They're probably involved in some dark stuff. They just want gold so badly for the joke shop, but it's stupid! They could get in so much trouble..."

* * *

I didn't attend the meeting between the special threesome and Moody, in part because Friction had an all-day rehearsal and in part because I was still wary of him. Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but there was something bizarre about him, and it wasn't that he was missing part of his nose (though that definitely contributed to it). Moody claimed that I must have gotten my facts wrong, because the man was gone.

I wasn't quite so convinced.

Nevertheless, I didn't really have a lot of time to dwell on it. Snape kept me hard at work, this time teaching me stunners. He'd decided to take a break from charms and move on to defensive magic, something that was surprisingly easy for him to teach.

"Think of it as a shield," he would say. "The stunner places a shield around your opponent. Only instead of protecting them, it hinders: They cannot attack you while unconscious, after all."

And so I learned. Eventually, it became a multipurpose lesson. He would use a stunner on me, and I would attempt to block it with a shield charm. And then we'd switch.

He kicked my ass most of the time, but I didn't care; it was my first mini-duel.

Sirius quickly wrote back to Harry, saying hi to us all within the first sentence, and then proceeding to spend the next page and a half lecturing Harry on the importance of staying safe. I found this particularly ironic considering he spent twelve years living in jail, but to each their own.

The days dragged on, and I found myself being dragged to two different practices: one for Friction and the other for Harry. The first was only slightly unnecessary. We dominated at Nationals for Starstruck, receiving Gold for three events and Platinum for four. Of course, this was no where _near_ good enough for Darcy, and so the multiple rehearsals at strange hours continued, and all the fun sleepovers we had on Saturday nights were halted.

Harry's rehearsals, on the other hand, were for the third task, and I actually found his even more tiring. He leaned spell after spell to prepare him for the third task (which he had revealed to us to be a maze), and he made _us_ practice them with him.

Our job? The target.

Great.

I found it funny that one of the first spells he wanted to learn was a stunner, as that was what Snape and I were working on at the time. Nevertheless, due to my recent lessons on the matter, I had some surprisingly insightful hints for him.

The problem was, we always ended up at the most random places at the most random times. At lunch, before school, during break... it was like I could never take a breather! We would go from having spells shot at us to having to sprint to Trelawney's sweltering hot classroom.

On the other side of the school. Swell.

"We really need to pick a more convenient space," I muttered as I began to climb the rope ladder.

The old hag was just as freaky as usual, going on about Mars, or something or other. "At it's twelfth hour, it shall be eclipsed. Saturn will regain possession of the cosmic universe, and the world as we know it shall change forever..."

Looking to my left, I saw that Harry was already asleep, and I was sorely tempted to join him. It's not like we were learning anything useful in that class, anyway. Nope, just some more planet bull crap. God, why couldn't I have gotten a teacher that actually knew what they were talking about? Why'd this nutcase have to be the only one applicable for the job...

All of a sudden, Harry shrieked. I jumped, as Ron reached for his friend. Harry clutched at his scar, moaning as he writhed in his seat as if he were having a seizure. "Harry!" He fell to the ground, and Ron went down besides him, still trying desperately to wake him. I was about ready to call 911 when he stopped, waking up slowly as if nothing had happened.

Talk about anticlimactic.

"Harry," Ron muttered. "Mate, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he murmured, looking around the room as his eyes blinked rapidly.

I reached down, offering him my hand to help him up. "You're as white as a ghost."

He shrugged before reaching for my hand. "Headache."

Our hands met, and his pain flashed before me. Suddenly, a headache pounded behind my eyes, the pain racing through my veins. It all lead back somewhere, I knew it. But where? When would it end? And then there was the terror. _He was coming_. Who, I didn't know. Why, I didn't know. But the knowledge that he was alive, that he could in fact be looking for me, was terrifying.

And then Harry let go and I was myself again. But still the terror remained. There was only one person that _he _could be, and if he was looking for Harry, than I had no choice but to interfere. Even at the risk of my own life.

* * *

I know it's been forever, please don't kill me!

The reason this has taken so long is thus: school sucks. After NaNoWriMo ended, I took a few days off so I could clear my head. I caught up on the fanfiction stories that I had skipped so I could write, and I relaxed.

And then came the projects.

I've literally been working on the first half of the chapter since the second week in December. I wrote about two hundred words a day, and that was all I had time for. School sucks! Then we went to Arizona for Christmas break. We stayed in an area without any internet service, so even though they provided computers in the rooms, me, being the genius that saved this to my email, was royally screwed! We went into town one day, and that was how I was able to steal a library computer to quickly tap out Fireflies, one of my oneshots.

But I'm back now. I still have a couple of projects to get done, but they aren't due for a while, so I think I can use this as procrastination, don't you? I tired to make this one extra long to make up for my absence (and I think I succeeded. 10,000 words? Seriously?). Granted, I wrote half of it today, but...

So please do me a favor and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... And I Love it!

Lurve forever,

-Selene


	16. The Maze

"I can't believe Crouch turned his own son in," I whispered later that night. Harry had come back from his meeting with Dumbledore enlightened with the knowledge of who Crouch had been as a person, and he was more than willing to share the wealth and quell our fears about why he'd been seizing on the floor of the Divination classroom. "Does he not understand the concept of family loyalty?"

"I'm more concerned with the fact that Dumbledore believes You-Know-Who to be getting stronger," Ron said with a shake of his head. "This can't be good."

"What about Ludo Bagman?" Hermione spoke up, crossing her legs as she did so. "Maybe Sirius was right. If he was accused of passing information over to the dark side-"

"Hermione, he's not that smart," I pointed out. "There's no way he sent the Dark Mark up _and_ killed Crouch. Moody would have caught him with ease if that was the case."

Harry just rubbed at his scar. "The point is," he said at last. "Voldemort," Insert Ron and Hermione's wincing here. "Is getting stronger. He's more powerful, and he has something planned... And I don't like it."

The clock chimed ten, ringing out it's foreboding song. Ten long chimes, and ten long days left until the third task...

* * *

Our training sessions continued. McGonagall gave us free usage of her room in between classes for the sole reason that she was sick of walking in on us as we practiced. Why she constantly felt the need to enter empty classrooms, thus catching us in the first place...

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I continued to learn more spells that were thought to be beneficial, including what was sure to be Hermione's favorite spell ever: a compass.

"Why doesn't he just summon an actual compass?" I asked one day as Harry attempted to perfect the spell.

"The magic of the castle will interfere with the magnetic pull of the compass," Hermione answered in a matter of fact manner.

"Okay," I said making a face. "Then here's an idea: Why doesn't Harry just try and summon the cup instead of going through the maze?"

They paused as Hermione thought it over. "It might be charmed..." she trailed off. "Try it," she said at last to Harry. "Once you're in the maze. It doesn't hurt to try, right? It might save you a lot of trouble."

And that was that.

Malfoy continued to be one of the weirdest kids I've ever met. During one of our training sessions, we caught him under the window three floors down... talking into his hand. "He must think he's James Bond," I muttered.

Harry turned to Hermione. "Are you _sure_ walkie talkie's don't work on school grounds?"

"Positive," she said, going into lecture mode. "Radio waves cannot be transmitted on school grounds. I assume that's why you don't get the internet on your laptop," she said, turning to me.

"I just thought that was because wizards didn't believe in Wi-Fi," I drawled.

Sirius continued to send his pleas that Harry remain safe almost daily. While Harry was a little peeved at the hypocrisy his godfather was showing, I could tell that he also was touched with how much Sirius cared.

Snape had also continued his extensive tutoring session with me. We'd decided to tackle History of Magic, seeing as that was one of the easiest subjects to catch up on given that no one ever paid any attention in that class, and therefore knew nothing. While I was glad to be taking a break from the practical magic and being slammed into inanimate objects, it was a little freaky to be sitting so close to Snape. The two of us sat side by side, him impatiently grading papers as he waited for me to figure out who the hell Uric the Oddball was.

I found it slightly ironic that the entire reason these little lessons had been conducted was so I could master my _unique_ powers, and we hadn't even begun those lessons yet. At one point, I sighed, throwing down my black ball-point pen (I refused to use a quill) and said, "You know, we're never going to catch me up before the year ends."

"I'm well aware of that," he said in a bored manner, flipping the page of the essay he was grading. "We shall resume these lessons next year. Hopefully by then you will be at a sufficient level to start honing your powers."

I scoffed. "So what? I'm on my own for the summer?"

"Don't set anyone on fire," was all he said.

* * *

The morning of the third task was a rambunctious affair. Most students neglected their studies, going into their exams knowing maybe half of what they should due to their excitement of the third task that would take place later that night. Alejandros had painted his face red for the Bulgarian colors, though some could argue it represented Gryffindor as well.

Of course, not all good things were apparent that morning. No, it soon came to my knowledge that Rita Skeeter had released an article in The Daily Prophet that morning talking about what a nutter Harry was.

"Stupid whore," I said as I came to the conclusion of the piece. "How the hell does she know these things?"

"This is unbelievable!" Hermione hissed. "The _nerve _of that woman."

"How is she doing this without bugging?" Harry asked, running a hand through his already messed up hair. "There has to be some way!"

"I don't know," Hermione cried in frustration. "I've searched and looked but... but... Oh... Oh!"

"Hey," a voice behind me said.

I turned in my seat, a bagel in hand. "Hey you," I said, kissing Alejandros on the lips. "You excited for the third task?"

"I'm excited for this tournament to be over and for Viktor to be out of harms vay, you know?" he said, sliding into the seat besides me. "Ve are like brothers. I vould hate for him to be hurt."

"I know what you mean." I took one last bite of my bagel before slowly standing up. "I should probably get to class," I said after I swallowed. "You know, History of Magic final and all."

He smiled softly up at me. "I shall see you later, then?"

"Of course."

* * *

"Man did that suck," I said, yawning as I exited the History classroom before lunch. "I can't believe the test was three freaking hours long! Was history _really_ that important?"

"Not if you refuse to learn from the past like most Americans do," Hermione quipped as we pushed our way into the Great Hall... where Ron stopped short.

"Mum? Bill? What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, running forward to throw his arms around a short middle-aged woman with dull red hair.

"Well we _had_ to watch Harry in the task, didn't we," she said cheerfully, waving Fred and George over as they entered the hall.

"Charlie wanted to come, but he couldn't get away," a voice to my left said.

I turned sharply, my eyes coming to rest upon a young man. He appeared to be in his early twenties, his eyes still alight with the laughter that is seen in young people. His jaw was strong and masculine, his height tall. He wasn't what I'd call muscular, but he wasn't weak either. The man had long red hair pulled back in a ponytail, the customary Weasley freckles, and baby blue eyes. He also had a single earring, and I was relieved to note that it was in his left ear...

"Bill!" Ginny cried, flinging herself at what could only be her older brother. "Hey!"

"How's it been, Gin?"

"Not bad. Is Charlie coming?"

"No, he couldn't get away."

"...But the three of us have been helping Harry prepare for the tournament," Ron was saying. I tore my gaze away from Bill to tune into a conversation that actually concerned me.

"The three of you? Have you made a new friend?" Ron's mom asked.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Come one mum."

"This is Avery," Fred said, suddenly grabbing me by the arm and thrusting me forward. "She's a transfer student."

I waved awkwardly. "Er, hi."

"It's so nice to met you," Mrs. Weasley said, pulling me in for a hug. Boy was that uncomfortable... "Thank you so much for helping get Harry through this tournament." She pulled back. "Really."

"Nice to meet you," Bill said, sticking out his hand. I was a little disappointed that _he_ didn't go in for the hug... "Bill Weasley."

I grabbed his hand, smiling sweetly. "Avery Nouvelli."

He blinked. "You're an American?"

I rolled my eyes. "I know, how horribly cliched."

"Actually," he said with a genuine grin. "That's kind of cool. I've been to Arizona before for work. They have some brilliant food there."

"Oh and what do you do?" I asked politely.

"I'm a curse breaker." I had a hard time not asking him to elaborate. "There was some ancient Native American burial sites that were giving your curse breakers trouble, so they called us in."

I nodded. "Fascinating." I was slightly disappointed by Bill's personality. He had seemed cool enough... before he opened his mouth. I reached for the coffee pot on the table. The house elves had started putting coffee out at all meals; due to the exams, Harry and I were guzzling it down. Hermione even had a cup on nights when she had a lot of cramming to do, though hers was so laden down with cream that you really couldn't call it coffee.

"No way," Bill said suddenly, smiling down at me. "You drink coffee too?"

"No doubt."

He surprised me by reaching for the pot after I set it down. "Merlin, I thought that was just me. The house elves would make me a special pot of it each morning when I went here, and I was the only one who would drink from it. Everyone thought I was mental, but I just can't do tea. It's just so..."

"Bitter," I supplied.

"Exactly! How people can sit down and enjoy tea for hours is beyond me."

I nodded once before deciding to put him to the test. "So... what do you think about scones?"

* * *

Five o'clock came too soon, and before we knew it, we were heading down to the Quidditch pitch. Alejandros found us easily (probably because of all the red-headed Weasleys) and grabbed my hand, holding onto it as we hurried to get good seats. I noticed Bill frowning out of the corner of my eye, and I heard Fred chuckle.

"I know what you're thinking, mate," he said. "Don't worry. I think the relationship will end before the year does."

Personally, I agreed with him, though I didn't like the fact that he was strutting around _telling _people that. As to whether or not Bill was someone I could ever see myself dating... I didn't know. We certainly had fun at lunch (once we'd moved on to topics I actually knew something about, anyway). Maybe he _was_ a good guy for me. Maybe over time, I'd start to feel that spark that was missing from Alejandros, that I hadn't felt since Tyler.

But I couldn't think about that now. The third task was about to start. The champions were lined up at the base of the maze, all wearing black robes, wands in hand. Bagman was relaying some sort of instructions to them before they were due to start.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Bagman proclaimed, speaking to the stands full of people as Alejandros settled down on my right, Hermione on my left. "The third task is about to begin!"

Alejandros gripped my hand tightly. "Here they go."

"Please welcome our four champions! Tied for first place, Cedric Diggory, and Harry Potter, both from Hogwarts house!" Cheers erupted within the stadium as Hogwarts students stood to show their support. "Next," Bagman continued. "In second place, Viktor Krum from Durmstrang!" Another pause for applause. "And finally, in third, Miss Fleur Delacour."

"I kind of wish they'd just get on with it," I muttered.

"Because they are tied for the lead, Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory will enter the maze first, followed by Mr. Krum, and then Miss Delacour."

"I think they're about to start now," Ron whispered from in front of me.

"I bloody well hope so," Bill exclaimed.

"Harry and Cedric," Bagman began. "On the whistle. Three, two, one-"

The whistle sounded, the maze opened up, and the two boys began to move. Cedric was fastest, running into the maze head on. Harry however was slower, pausing to wave his wand...

"He just did the summoning spell," Hermione noted. "The cup must not be summonable."

"Pity," Fred joked. "Wouldn't that have been great? The youngest Triwizard contest has the fastest ever time."

"It would have made for a helluva victor's party, that's for sure," I agreed.

"I'll supply the butterbeer," Bill joked.

"As long as you and I can share a firewhiskey," I remarked with raised eyebrows. Alejandros stiffened by my side.

Bill laughed. "And here I was given the mistaken impression that you were a responsible girl."

"Never in life."

A second whistle blew, and Alejandros cheered as Krum ran into the maze. "Why are we sitting with him again?" George asked, leaning forward to whisper in my ear. "He's totally rooting for the other team."

"Because we're friends," I replied as Alejandros joined into the Bulgarian chant.

"Has he gotten to being much more than friends with you yet?" Fred asked, leaning forward to take part in the conversation as well. I couldn't help but notice that Bill was listening in... "Like in a, er, promiscuous manner?"

I smirked. "You think that's your business?"

"Well not now, but who knows? It might one day."

The third whistle sounded, and Fleur ran forward. And that was it. They were all in.

And then reality hit me.

"Oh come on," I groaned. "Not again!"

"What?" Hermione asked, her head snapping in my direction. "Is everything okay?"

"The third task is a maze," I said, stating the obvious.

Ginny stared at me as if I were a dumbass. "Of course it is."

"We can't see _anything_. Not a damn thing. It's the freaking lake task all over again!" Hermione cocked her head to the side, observing the maze before nodding in agreement. "I tell you, whoever came up with the tasks in this shindig just fails at life."

Bill let out a bark of a laugh. "So what do you propose we do while we wait?"

I shrugged. "Tic tac toe? Or we could conjure up a deck of cards and get a massive game of poker going."

"Wizards chess!" Ron called, causing his brothers to groan.

"Find a new game, baby brother!"

"Really!"

"Aren't you vorried about Harry at all," Alejandros asked, his eyebrows coming together in an annoyed expression. "He is your friend, and he could be in danger."

But I just rolled my eyes. "It's not like I could tell if he was." Alejandros scowled. "But seriously. We don't know what's going on! At least with the second task, there was the whole it'll-take-about-an-hour thing. _We_ could be sitting here for ten hours or twenty minutes. It's brutal."

"I doubt anyone will be able to find the cup in twenty minutes," Hermione pointed out in a slightly know-it-all way. "The cup is too closely positioned to the center; it'll in no way be reachable for at least a half hour, and that's only for an athlete in top form with no obstacles."

Silence met this proclamation. I blinked. "Did you swallow an encyclopedia on your way up here, or something?"

"Not to mention," Bill pointed out. "That we've already been here for half an hour."

It was literally seconds after he said this that red sparks shot into the air, coming from the left side of the maze. A disturbed murmuring started up throughout the crowd as McGonagall and Snape raced forward to retrieve the fallen champion. "Shit," I muttered, fear coursing through me. Was that Harry? Was he out already?

"Oh Merlin," Hermione said, surprising both me and Ron as she reached forward to grab the redhead's hand. "Oh I hope that's not Harry..."

Alejandros and I clutched to each other, suddenly close again due to the potential danger our friend was in bonding us. Our argument from ten minutes ago seemed nonexistent. Harry could be in danger, or Viktor...

Fleur Delacour was assisted out of the maze fifteen minutes after the sparks were shot into the air. Blood ran down one of her arms, and she looked liked she was on the verge of losing consciousness, but for the most part she seemed in one piece. The Weasleys, Alejandros, and I all collectively breathed a sigh of relief. It was okay. He was safe.

But Fleur was now out of the challenge. I suppose that wasn't a bad thing; it increased Harry's odds. However, it was just another moment that Harry would be out of my sight and in potential danger...

"I don't know whether to be thankful that Harry's all right or still worried because he's in that maze," I heard Mrs. Weasley mutter.

"Don't worry, mum," Ginny reassured. "Everything will be fine."

"You okay?" Bill leaned forward, whispering in my ear. "You're not going to faint, are you?"

I shook my head. "Of course not. I'm no sleeping beauty. I can take care of myself."

He nodded "That's good." A pause, and then, "About what my brother said earlier, about you and the Bulgarian... Well, have you?"

"Have I what?"

"Gotten, uh, _friendly_ with him?"

I smirked, turning to face him. "Why Bill Weasley, I hardly know you."

He shrugged. "I was just asking."

"Well the answer is no," I said with a coy smile. "Not that it's any of your business."

My attention was immediately diverted from whatever Bill had been about to say, however. All of a sudden, I felt a pull on my arm as Alejandros vied for my attention. "That vas close," Alejandros whispered, squeezing my hand.

"No kidding. I can't believe someone actually had to send up sparks-"

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than a second set of red sparks appeared near the center of the maze. "Oh, not again," I moaned, my hands immediately engulfing my head in worry.

"They're dropping like flies," Hermione supplied in a horrified whisper.

It took longer for the second champion to be removed from the maze, but after twenty minutes, Snape and McGonagall came forth once more, this time magically leading a floating stretcher upon which... Krum was laid out. Once again, I breathed a sigh of relief.

As next to me, Alejandros groaned. "No!"

I laid a hand on his arm, trying hard to comfort my friend as we watched the staff revive Krum. "Alejandros," I whispered. "I'm so sorry-" That was all I could get out. In a flash, Krum's friend was up and running towards the Quidditch pitch, wanting to make sure the champion was all right.

I sighed to myself, watching as Moody rounded the corner. "I hope Krum'll be okay."

"I'm sure he will be," Hermione reassured. "The Ministry has worked tirelessly to prevent any fatalities this year. He should be fine."

I kept my eyes on Moody, watching as he moved closer to Krum. A breeze began to blow, stirring up my hair and biting at my cheeks. "I guess," I muttered, agreeing with Hermione's logic.

And then my mind was gone.

_"But you should take it," Harry protested, gesturing to his right where the Triwizard cup stood gleaming in the moonlight. "Cedric, you got here first. Take the cup!"_

_"I owe you."_

_"It doesn't matter!" Harry said, throwing his hands up. He paused, looking at the magical object before coming to a compromise. "Together then," he said. "We'll take it together. On the count of three."_

_Cedric nodded, walking up to stand before the cup. "One."_

_Harry mirrored him, reaching out as Cedric did."Two... Three!" As one, both boys reached out, grabbing hold of the cup and grasping it in their hands. Seconds later, they were gone, as was the cup._

_Disappeared._

_A dark mist swirled before my eyes, maniacal laughter sounding through my ears. They were going to die. They would all die and there was nothing to be done about it. They had to be warned, they couldn't touch that cup. That cup was death, it would bring them to _him. _They had to be warned._

They had to be stopped.

"Shit!" I cried out, my eyes widening in horror. "Shit!" I called out again.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, reaching for my arm. "Avery, what did you see? Avery!"

But I was already moving, pushing through the throng of people that cheerfully watched the task, believing everything to be just fine, not knowing that the two remaining champions were going to die...

"Avery!" I could hear Ron, Hermione, and Bill chasing after me, the former two because they knew I had seen something, and Bill because he probably thought he could be of help. But it didn't matter. There was nothing they could do.

I reached the bottom of the stadium. Without a second's thought, I jumped behind a wooden beam, using it like Superman used a phone booth as I transformed into a shadow. In no time at all, I was flying, zooming past the crowd, Hermione, Ron, and Bill as I headed for the maze.

I avoided the obstacles, Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts and the boggarts being something easily avoidable while I was a shadow. I let my instincts guide me, pushing me towards the center of the maze where hopefully Harry and Cedric would still be standing.

And I was right because rounding a corner, I saw them, Cedric supporting a limping Harry as they headed towards the cup. _No!_ I wanted to scream. _No, don't!_ I was going to be too late. They would be gone by the time I reached them. They would die. I willed myself to go faster, willed myself to get there sooner so that the last thing I saw of the two boys was not their triumphant, happy faces as they headed off to their doom.

"One," I heard Cedric count as I drew closer.

"Two," Harry continued. _No, wait!_ I was almost there, so close... "Three!"

I slammed into Harry's back, latching onto his arm and was in the process of shifting back to tell them to get away when they simultaneously grabbed the handles. I felt a pull in my navel, a tingle telling me that I was going to disappear with them, and then my back hit the ground, Harry's feet landing on my hips. I pushed them off, rolling over onto my stomach as I coughed. I had failed. Cedric and Harry were here, they would die, and worst of all, I would probably be destroyed with them.

Great.

I glanced up, wondering just where the hell I was...

* * *

Hey guys! I bet you all weren't expecting an update so soon, huh? But I just had to get this out! I'm so close to the end now, and that's pushing me forward... There will probably be two to three more chapters (depending on whether or not I do an epilogue), so stay tuned for that. Annnnddd (I shall divulge a secret now) I'm very tempted to do a sequel...

So tell me what you think about that in a review! What are your opinions? Would you read it? Please tell me and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... and I Love it!

Lurve always,

-Selene


	17. Back From the Grave

"Avery? What... what are you doing here?"

Boy wasn't _that_ a good question. Man I was such an idiot. I could have gone to Dumbledore, I could have shouted for everyone to stop the tournament, hell I probably even could have told Snape. But what do I do instead? I try to handle it myself.

You see how well _that_ worked out.

I sat up, rubbing the back of my neck as I did so. "Trying to stop you from grabbing the cup," I said candidly. "Fat lot of good that did."

"It's a Portkey," Cedric said, glancing over at the gleaming object that lay a few yards away from us.

"Yes thank you," I snapped. "I never would have guessed that." I turned back to Harry as the scarred teenager stood up. "Harry, we have to get back, now. Something bad is going to happen-"

"You mean this isn't a part of the task?" Cedric asked, doing the idiotic thing and moving _away _from the cup in question.

I pulled a face. "Would I be here if it was?"

"How did you get here, anyway?" Cedric inquired.

"There's no time! Listen-"

"Someone's coming," Harry interrupted suddenly, pushing me down behind a giant white boulder as he took out his wand. "Hide!"

"Are you nuts!" I hissed. "Why should we hide? We have to get back to the cup!"

"Shut up," Harry whispered, keeping his face turned towards the approaching figure, short and stubby wearing a long black cloak and carrying a bundle in its arms... "Don't say a word, and turn into that... thing."

"But-"

And that was when it spoke. "_Kill the spare!_"

"Avada Kedavra!" Fear shot through me, as I could feel my life flashing before me, the way the green light flashed towards the three of us... I heard Harry scream, heard a heavy _thud_ as something hit the ground. I opened my eyes... To see Cedric Diggory, staring back at me as he lay flat on his back, dead.

It was a natural instinct, something that I did without thinking about. Putting my fist in my mouth to muffle a scream, I shifted, changing forms so I could be a shadow once more. _Cedric was dead,_ I thought, my mind being overrun with worry and terror. _And I could be next._

Boy, do I get myself into stellar situations, or what?

I tried to calm myself down, to regain control of my senses. _It's okay, _I lied to myself. _You can get through this. Just think things through. First, figure out where you are._

Okay, that was no big deal. I looked up, glancing around to survey my location. For starters, I was a little shocked to find out that the big white rock I hugged so dearly for survival was actually a tombstone. That was a little disconcerting...

It appeared Harry and I were in a graveyard, probably a muggle one, though that was a stupid assumption given that I had never visited a wizarding grave. During the time in which I had been panicking, Harry had been seized by the hooded figure and dragged ten feet away up to a gigantic marble headstone, and tied in place. The man's hood fell back, and a puffy face looked at Harry with beady little eyes like a rat's...

"You!" Harry spat.

Th man ignored him, though I couldn't help but wonder how Harry knew him. Would this knowledge be helpful in our escape, or would it only provide a greater challenge? About twenty feet from me lie the Triwizard Cup. If only I could reach it...

The man began to set up a cauldron, lighting a fire with his wand as he added ingredients. From my position, I could only make out indiscernible roots and the unmistakable silvery glow of the cursed unicorn's blood...

"It is time, master," the man spoke, referencing the bundle that he'd laid to rest at his feet.

"_Do it_," a reptilian voice commanded.

Reaching into the bundle, the man grabbed its contents... And if I had been in human form, I would have yelled in fright, for inside the bundle was the ugliest baby I had ever seen. As pale as snow yet as devious as a rattlesnake, the man gently dropped the child into the bubbling potion.

What poor parenting skills.

"_Bones of the father," _the man spoke suddenly, waving his wand at the ground Harry stood on. It cracked, and out from the mound of dirt at the orphan's feet rose a large bone... "_Unwillingly given._"

Oh no, that can't be good. Was the man doing some sort of spell? Was he trying to... No, it couldn't be-

The man pulled a silver dagger from his robes, waving it in the air... "_Flesh of the servant..."_ Oh my god!_ "Given..." _He wasn't going to-_ "Willingly!" _He did. With a sickening thud, he brought the knife down, chopping off his hand to land in the cauldron. I fought nausea, knowing that fainting now would be a very bad thing...

He turned to Harry next, on him before I could blink. "_Blood of the enemy, forcibly... taken."_ He dragged the dagger across Harry's forearm, creating a long gash. All I could do was watch, praying that it would all end soon-

The blood was added into the cauldron. The boiling mass continued to spurt and hiss. I could see Harry wincing, could almost feel him wishing ill of the creature that lay inside. But I knew it would do no good. The damage was done. Nothing could change that.

I was proven correct when a moment later, a bald, slimy looking man stepped from the cauldron, with slits for a nose and narrowed eyes like a snake. His long fingers flexed themselves as he took in his surroundings, breathing in deeply before his servant.

So this must be Lord Voldemort.

And he was naked. Great.

I blinked. This was a _little_ more than I would have liked to see of the guy who would soon be attempting to kill one of my best friends, especially considering that he wasn't very well endowed. There wasn't that much to look at, which made avoiding my gaze so much easier.

Meanwhile, his faithful servant sat moaning as he clutched the stub of an arm he had left. He rocked back and forth, cowering at his master's feet as the pain overtook him. Boy, this Voldemort dude wasn't a very sensitive guy...

"Cloth me, Wormtail," he hissed.

Oh thank god.

The man named Wormtail wrapped a black robe around the snake man's body, hiding away that thin, awkward form I _so_ did not need to see. Harry began to struggle against his bindings as Wormtail handed Voldemort his wand, and a string of panic ran through me. Was this it? Was Harry about to die? But no, something deep within me said. Not yet. There's still time...

"Please," Wormtail muttered, cradling his stub of an arm against his chest. "Please, Master."

"Your arm, Wormtail," Voldemort drawled.

Relief shone on the servant's face. "Oh thank you! My Lord, thank you-"

"The other arm," Voldemort said with a laugh, his voice high and cruel. With a pout of resignation, Wormtail held his left arm up to his master, allowing the dark dude to roll back his sleeves so that a tattoo I couldn't quite make out from my position was visible on his forearm... "Ah," he said quietly, before gently running one of his long white fingers down the length of the tattoo-

Wormtail screamed, the pain proving to be too much for him as Voldemort chuckled. "I wonder," he hissed. "I wonder how many shall return to me tonight, after leaving me to die, don't you?"

He began to pace back and forth, moving steadily closer to Harry as he spoke. "You see, Harry Potter, here you are, and here am I. Alive and well once more. You thought you had vanquished me, but it is not so..."

I tried not to roll my eyes. As much danger as Harry and I were in right now, I couldn't help but be overly amused by the stereotypical super-villain monologue he was giving. Couldn't he be more creative?

I peered around the graveyard, trying to find a hole in his plan, some way out. The cup was too far away from us; I couldn't make it there without attracting attention. And then there was the matter of Harry. I couldn't just _leave _him here. I needed to find some way to release those bonds, to free him so we could both make it back to the cup-

All of a sudden, the wind began to howl, as various swishes of black began to swirl through the air. Something was happening, something not good... One landed besides me, and for a moment I thought I was caught, but it moved forwards, towards the sinister vision of Voldemort. The black apparitions became people, figures dressed in hooded black robes, eerie Phantom of the Opera like masks hiding their faces from sight. "Master," they muttered, crawling towards Voldemort and kissing his feet before backing away, making a ring to stand around Harry and Voldemort. It was only then that I realized I was on the outskirts of the circle.

"Welcome, Death Eaters!" Voldemort began, sweeping his arm in a wide arc around the graveyard. "Welcome back one and all. I trust that you've had a lovely thirteen years of disloyalty as you left me to rot!"

An ashamed murmur began throughout the circle as his servants bowed again before him. I mentally sighed. It could no longer be avoided: Lord Voldemort was back, and his followers were ready to do his bidding. And Harry and I were caught in the middle.

Shit.

* * *

If there's one thing that can be said about Voldemort, it's that he would have made one helluva motivational speaker if he was a muggle.

No joke, the guy talked for like an hour. And the sad thing was that everyone was listening to him. Not a single person tuned him out or pretended to be paying attention or anything. No, they genuinely cared about what he had to say.

Bizarre.

I, of course, tried to keep myself focused on my primary concern: getting the hell out of here. However, as of the point in time when Voldemort had decided to use an Unforgivable Curse on Harry _while he was freaking tied up_ (the coward), I had no idea. The only thing I could hope for was the bald man to taunt Harry, telling him how he could've escaped if he wasn't tied to a tombstone.

Now this guy may not be the brightest in the world, but somehow I didn't think he was that stupid.

"I shall kill him!" Voldemort was saying. I could feel his followers growing restless, could feel their desire for Harry's blood. "Right here, right now! He shall be mine!" The Death Eaters cheered, an appreciative murmur rising through them as Voldemort stopped before Wormtail. "Untie him, and give him back his wand."

And that was when it hit me.

I can't even begin to tell you how stupid I felt at that point. How had it escaped my notice that I had a wand? How had I forgotten that it was a supreme way to defend myself? What kind of a witch _was _I?

Boy, there's a phrase I'd never thought I'd say.

Easing myself around the back of the tombstone, I drifted in my shadow form, hidden from view. Whenever I had changed into a shadow, it had always been all or nothing, never something in between. The problem with that: I couldn't use my wand in shadow form. To use defensive spells, I had to have at least a part of me be visible...

I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself. _Oh god, why do I have to do this?_ I focused all of my concentration on my magic, trying to recall what Snape had told me... _Okay,_ I thought. _If stunners are like shields, than so is my shadow power. I just have to remove part of the shield..._ I gave it a go, focusing on making my wand arm visible...

It was too much too soon. All of a sudden, I could feel half of my body again, the other half living in the darkness. I started to panic. What if the Death Eaters could see me? But I was there. I had control. I calmed myself, easing the shield back around, I slowly turned the rest of my body shadow, being careful to keep from my elbow down human so I could shoot spells...

I tuned back into the Death Eater conversation, trying to learn what was going on. They were laughing, chuckling as I could barely make out Harry bowing, a strained look upon his face as though he were fighting it.

"Excellent," Voldemort said softly. "And now, we shall duel."

Crap.

Without thinking, I fired a stunner, the spell coming naturally to me during this time of stress. As Harry and Voldemort began to battle, one of the Death Eaters on the outside ring crumbled, falling forward. "Stop!" Another screamed, bending to grab his fallen friend. "What in the name of Merlin-"

I fired another shot, figuring I might as well kick ass while I still had the element of surprise. I managed to knock two more out before they began firing back, though at what they couldn't tell. "Find them!" Voldemort hissed. "Find whoever this is."

Right, okay. Well I didn't really want _that_ to happen. In a flash, I changed back into a shadow completely, hugging the tombstone as tightly as I could with my dark form. Four of Voldemort's minions set out, their wands at the ready as they began combing the area. Meanwhile, the three Death Eaters I'd knocked out were revived.

Well so much for my element of surprise.

Voldemort rounded on Harry. "Who else is here?" he hissed, glaring at Harry as he backed away. Harry stared back defiantly, not giving up anything. One of the Death Eaters moved closer to my spot, and I tried to remain as still as possible so he wouldn't see the moving shadow... "Who else? _Crucio!_"

He was hit, the torture curse slicing through him as he screamed, his body jerking with the force of the pain. I wanted to do something, I had to do something- And then Voldemort stopped the curse, moving his hand as he sneered down at the Boy-Who-Lived. "Have you had enough?" But Harry said nothing, glaring at the evil wizard before him. "Answer me!" Silence. Voldemort raised his wand again. "_Imperio_!"

Oh this was not good. Voldemort had just used two of the three unforgivable curses, and I knew what came next. I had to do something! I looked around; the Death Eater that had been nearing my bubble had his back turned, his eyes on the headstone in front of me. Silently, I drifted moving closer to where Harry and Voldemort stood. I stopped, leaning against another headstone, albeit a smaller one, to pause.

"NO!"

"No," Voldemort said quietly. "No? I see. Well then. Perhaps I shall have to teach you a lesson-" But Harry had already turned on his heels, darting behind another headstone. "What in the name of Merlin are you doing, Harry? This isn't some childish game, you know." Voldemort began to advance on Harry, and I jumped one more headstone closer. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," he called, taunting the boy. I switched headstones once more, now close enough to the Dark Lord that I could reach out and touch him. If I could just angle my wand right, this would all be over-

"There it is!" came the shout from behind me.

Aw crap.

I looked up just in time to see the Death Eater hurtle a stunner at me. I moved, dodging so quickly that I nearly hit Voldemort. But he didn't have time to react. Taking advantage of my distraction, Harry jumped from behind the headstone and yelled "_Expelliarmus!"_

At the same moment, Voldemort whirled around and screamed, "_Avada Kedavra!"_

I'm not really sure what happened next; I was too busy dodging curses to notice. But the next thing I know, Voldemort and Harry are both being lifted, magically floating and landing in an empty space of the graveyard a few feet away, all the while connected by a golden string of light.

Suddenly, I became unimportant, as the Death Eaters rushed to help their Lord. Well, all but one of them. Just when I thought I was in the clear, I sensed another stunner heading right towards me, missing me by a fraction of an inch. "I can't see you," the voice taunted. "But I know you're there. And you _will_ be mine."

I mentally scoffed. Unlikely. Especially given that he was the only one trying to kill me. I waited against the back of a headstone, my wand arm becoming solid again as I bided my time, knowing that sooner or later, he would come round...

"What I don't understand," the Death Eater taunted, his voice sounding surprisingly close. "Is how you're doing this. Is it a new spell? An advanced type of invisibility cloak?" He came closer. "Or are you just a freak of our kind? Someone with bizarre powers," Closer... "Someone we shouldn't kill, but should instead dissect very slowly."

And there he was. "Stupefy!" He went down, hitting the ground hard. I rolled my eyes. Idiot.

As if I hadn't had enough of the creepy supernatural stuff, all of a sudden, Harry's voice popped into my head. Yeah, that's what I said, Without warning, boy wonder's thoughts were taking place _inside my mind_.

I'm ready for my meds.

_"You have to be ready to run,"_ some man was telling him. _"Once the connection is broken, you'll only have a few moment. You'll need to hurry."_

_"But what about Avery," _Harry said back urgently. _"I can't leave her here-"_

_"She'll meet you at the cup,"_ the women said, and it was with a shock that I recognized her as the women from my vision, Lily... "_She'll be waiting for you there."_

_"Bring back my body," _Cedric's ghost said. "_Please, Harry. Bring it back-"_

I jumped back into my own head, coming to myself with a start. I had to get to the cup. Moving swiftly, I flew, heading towards the stupid championship memorabilia that started this whole mess. In the distance, I saw Harry heading towards me as well, shooting curses over his shoulder as he ran. I decided to help him out. Becoming partly visible once more, I cried, "Stupefy!"

Harry heard my voice. Reacting quickly, he yelled, "Get Cedric's body!"

I summoned it, slightly creeped out as the corpse flew towards me. I grabbed it with my wand hand, taking hold of Harry's shirt as he slid behind the tombstone next to the cup. "Perfect timing," I said with a grin, becoming whole as he grabbed the cup. I felt the pull to my naval, my feet being lifted off the ground, and the overwhelming knowledge that we weren't going to die.

Tonight, anyway.

* * *

Arg! Finals week is coming up! Due to this abomination, I will not be updating until next Saturday at the earliest. However, if I don't update Saturday, you can guarantee that I will update sometime that weekend considering I have four days off!

A special thank you to my three reviewers from last chapter: tree1138 , sweetypie200494 , and brilliantblonde (especially the last one, who has been reviewing since chapter two! Thank you so much!)

So please do me a favor and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... And I Love it!

Lurve forever,

-Selene


	18. The Traitor Unmasked

The moment I hit the ground, my body immediately dissolved back into my shadow form. I don't know if it was becoming a reflex or what, but upon impact, I was nothing but a ghost in the wind. It's a pretty good thing this happened too, as the moment we returned to the Hogwarts grounds, all hell broke loose.

Screams were shouted, footsteps pounded on the ground, teachers began to surround Harry and Cedric's body... I moved away quickly; just because I was in shadow form, that didn't mean I was intangible. Sure my dark form allowed me to travel faster (why? Hell if I know. It's not like I'm a physicist), but I could still be touched. That's why I worked so hard to dodge spells back at the graveyard. It had been very possible for me to be hit.

I floated my way into the crowd, heading towards the back of the stands where I had last left the Weasley family. Sure enough, Hermione was beginning to panic, having just realized that Harry was down there. "Oh Merlin! What happened? What's going on? Ron-"

I materialized behind her, knowing that in the mass confusion, the chances of anyone noticing would be slim at best. "He's all right," I said quickly, causing her to spin around. "But Cedric's dead."

Ron's eyes widened. "Diggory? No way! How-"

But Hermione pounced on me. "Where on _earth_ have you been? You just left, disappeared, and-"

"Avery?" Bill asked, suddenly appearing by my right shoulder. "Where did you come from?" I opened my mouth-

"Blimey!" Fred shouted, worming his way into our circle. "I think Diggory's dead."

"He is," George confirmed. "I just heard Pomfrey say so."

"Bloody hell. How-"

"Shut up!" Hermione screeched, turning her attention quickly back to me, a panicked look crossed her features. "Avery, what is it? What happened? How did Diggory die? What was the reason-"

And that was when it hit.

_His eyes darted back and forth, his face twitching as he carried the Triwizard Cup out into the center of the maze. He checked over his shoulder, muttering a spell to see if he was being followed. His face convulsed again._

_Setting the cup down in the middle of the maze, he muttered a spell, activating something... something detrimental. Something that would change life as we knew it. With a satisfied smirk that was marred by the unexpected movement of his face, Moody reached into his robes, pulling out a flask. He unscrewed the lid with shaky fingers and took a swig._

_His face stopped twitching._

The sight before my eyes flashed, the image changing quickly...

_"Come on, Harry," Moody muttered, his wooden leg clunking gently against the stone corridor as he all but dragged a battered Harry down the hall. "It'll be all right. Stay with me, now." Harry just blinked, too emotionally scarred to protest as his teacher led him deeper and deeper into the confines of the school..._

I came back to myself, blinking at the lights from the stadium. Looking down near the entrance to the maze, I scanned the ground, searching for any sign of Harry. "Shit!" I muttered quickly, using what was turning out to be my word of the day.

Hermione immediately snapped to attention, her freak-out forgotten at the sign of my vision. "What is it this time?" she asked sharply.

Danger pulsed through my veins, the warning coming too late. Moody was the bad guy. Moody had killed Crouch. Moody was the wolf among us. Moody was going to try and kill Harry in the name of Voldemort. Moody was with Harry _right now_.

Swell.

I spoke fast, not caring that Fred, George, and Bill were all within earshot and would probably think I was nuts after this. "You have to tell Dumbledore," I said quickly, looking back and forth between Ron and Hermione. "Tell him that Moody is the inside man, and that he's got Harry right now. I'm going to try and head them off, but you have to tell him _now_."

Hermione opened her mouth, whether to protest or to ask a question I'll never know. As soon as I finished speaking, I shifted, not caring that three out of six of Ron's siblings were staring at me in open-mouthed horror. I began to move away as I shifted, though I was still within earshot as Bill exclaimed, "Merlin! What the bloody hell..."

I didn't give it a second's thought, though later I would lament over the fact that the odds of Bill and myself ever being more than just friends had dropped significantly. I flew along, pushing myself to go faster and faster, to expedite my dramatic entrance into Moody's lair...

Through the castle I went, twisting through the empty corridors as I raced along. Through the Great Hall, up the first floor, turn once and then the staircase to the second floor... The stairs began to move as I hurtled along, but I didn't slow, jumping over the gap so as not to be deterred from my goal...

What felt like hours of panicked travel to me was in actuality only a minute. Nevertheless, as I arrived outside the door to his office, I realized I was faced with a pretty big dilemma: How the hell was I supposed to get inside?

I fought the urge to groan. Here I was jumping into things without thinking them through once more. It wasn't like I could just open the door and waltz inside. Hell, the door was probably locked! What good was I protecting Harry if I wasn't even in the same room as him?

I shifted, returning to my normal form as I began to pace back and forth. There had to be something that I could do. I shut my eyes, closing my mind to the outside world as I drifted into the future, trying to see what as about to take place...

_"The Death Eaters were with him, then?" Moody's gruff voice inquired, his eyes narrowed in thought._

_"Yes. There were... There were loads," Harry muttered, his eyes closing in pain as he remembered the scene of the graveyard... Suddenly, they snapped open. "Professor! Professor, we have to tell Dumbledore. The man that killed Crouch, the Death Eater, he's at Hogwarts! He's been here all year-"_

_"I know," Moody murmured, turning to face the boy head on. "I know who the Death Eater is."_

_Harry stared at him in bewilderment. "You do?"_

_"Yes."_

I allowed my mind to let go of the vision, falling back into my body with a sudden jerk. I snorted. Yeah, I bet Moody knew who the Death Eater was.

Without a warning, fear spread through my core. Before I could so much as move, the door before me was wrenched open, and Moody stood before me, his wand in his hands as his body blocked the contents of the room from my view.

Oh. Well this was not going according to plan at all.

"Miss Nouvelli," Moody growled. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh..." My mind drew a blank. What was I doing here? What was a good excuse? "I had a question about shields." Sure, that would work.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "And you chose to ask it now? During the third task?"

Crap, that was a good point.

I had no idea what to do. Sure I can BS my way out of anything- when I'm prepared. But now? Not so much. The only thing that was running through my head was that he was going to kill Harry. And now, he was probably going to kill me as well.

Moody must have seen the fear in my eyes, because the next thing I knew, he had grabbed ahold of me by the arm and shoved me through the doorway. I stumbled, hitting the corner of his desk hard, forcing the air to leave my lungs as I doubled over.

"Avery?" Harry sniffed, looking up at me from a seat by the window. "What are you doing here? Are you all right?"

Moody shut the door and locked it, the key clanking against the knob before he put it into his pocket. He then rounded on me. "So," he said, somewhat pleasantly. "You're a seer." My eyes widened as I remembered he knew one of my talents.

Peachy.

I tried to stay calm. "I am."

"So what?" Harry asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Moody ignored him, though. "You know don't you." His grip on his wand tightened as he spoke, but I pretended to not notice as I nodded. "How long? Just, for curiosity's sake, of course," he said casually, taking a step nearer...

I shrugged, straightening up a bit. "About five minutes or so. Not long enough to rat you out or anything."

Harry just blinked in surprise. "What?"

A slight smile crossed Moody's lips as he locked eyes with mine. "So that's how it's going to be, is it?"

I could sense what he was about to do before he even raised his wand. My eyes widening, I fumbled in my pocket, trying to pull my own wand out in time... "_Avada Kedavra!_" A flash of green light was heading straight towards me...

Aw, screw it.

In a second, I had shifted, darting away from him and over to where Harry sat, shell-shocked that his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had just tried to kill his friend. Moody's eyes widened as he spun around, looking for me.

I knew that I couldn't shoot spells without being fully materialized this time; Moody wasn't an moron. He was soon going to figure out where they were all coming from. In a flash, I shifted so I stood in front of Harry, jolting him out of his stupor. "Your wand, idiot," I snapped, before Moody spun around and shot another spell at me.

He was breathing hard as I disappeared into the shadows. I could see his face twitching... "What... What are you?" he rasped.

I needed to get my wand. I could feel it, just inside my pocket. If I could just reach it... I emerged again, gripping my wand and pulling it from my pocket. "Surely_you've_ heard of the Ultimate Power." I darted away as he shot another spell.

He gaped. "But you're not... Really? Merlin-"

This is, of course, where Harry had to do something completely dumb. He stood, facing Moody head on, and said, "What's going on? Why are you trying to kill Avery? Professor-" Surprise, surprise, Moody grabbed ahold of Harry's arm, pulling the boy to him with a cry as he held his wand to Harry's throat.

This is what he gets for talking to the bad guy.

"Come out now, or Potter dies," Peg-Leg growled.

"You're going to kill him either way," I pointed out as I changed forms once more. Yes, this was synonymous to signing my own death warrant, but I had to do everything I could to stall for time. I had to make sure Dumbledore got here to save Harry. I had to make sure the boy lived, even if it meant my own death.

I never took myself to be altruistic...

"Perhaps," Moody admitted, throwing Harry away with a heave. "But I shall enjoy killing you first." His wand pointed at my chest, he smiled crookedly at me.

"Not if I can help it," I muttered, raising my wand.

But he was faster. "_Crucio!" _The spell hit me hard, knocking me off my feet and into the wall. It felt like a hundred white-hot needles were stabbing into me; my nerves were on fire. I grabbed onto his door's hinge for support, but the pain knocked me door. Twitching, I fell to the ground, my body convulsing as I prayed for it to end, for Harry to conjure the courage to find his wand and fire a spell-

And then it stopped. My ears were ringing as my heart raced, the world swimming before me as I came back to awareness. Moody was screaming, using water from his wand's tip to put out the fire from his robes. "You..." he growled, pointing his wand at me, a malicious glint in his eyes.

I blinked rapidly, a smirk overtaking my face. I had just set fire to the bastard trying to kill me. "Cool," I muttered as I fought the battle to remain conscious.

Moody waved his wand, as behind him, I saw Harry's left hand plunge into his robes. Moody's mouth opened, and I knew Harry would be too late. Nothing could help me now. I was finished. "_Avada_-"

"_Stupefy!_"

A flash of red light. A popping noise. A big bang... And then wood flying everywhere, sailing towards me as three figures appeared in the doorway. I barely had time to be relived when a chunk of wood hit me in the head, and I passed out.

* * *

The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back, a soft surface beneath my head as people around me started to shout...

"How could you keep this from us!"

"Your own brothers-"

"Your flesh and blood!"

"We're her friends too, you know."

"She didn't want us to tell you," a feminine voice protested.

"That's just great!"

"Calm down, George. She didn't want us to tell anyone."

"Well that makes me feel loads better, thanks!"

"Will you shut up," I muttered, slowly opening my eyes as silence permeated the room. I felt as if I was on my death bed. My head pounded, my shoulder ached, and the light from the room was way too bright. Apparently, the Weasleys figured I might be dying as well, if the way they were huddling around my bed was any indication.

"Avery," Hermione yelped, suddenly darting forward to throw her arms around my neck. "We were so worried!"

"Mate, what happened," Ron asked, leaning awkwardly over Hermione. "Snape just brought you here and then ran out. He didn't tell us anything-" I fought the urge to raise an eyebrow. _Snape?_

"Kind of like how you didn't tell us your enormous secret," Fred snapped, an eyebrow elevated as George nodded. "When were you going to tell us you were the Ultimate Power?"

Mrs. Weasley hit him over the head. "Out! Both of you!" The twins attempted to protest, but it did no good. "She's been hurt, and you two are only causing her more angst. Leave. And take Ginny with you."

Ginny's mouth dropped open. "But mum-"

"No buts. It's late; you're young. You need your rest. Well? Go!"

George rolled his eyes as Ginny marched dramatically out of the room, muttering to herself under her breath. "We are glad you're all right, you know," he said. Fred nodded in agreement.

With the twins gone, the attention was once again focused on me. I struggled to sit up, but Bill reached over and lent me a hand. "Thanks," I said, my voice a little hoarse. I blinked again at my surroundings. "I'm in the hospital wing, aren't I?"

The off-white walls were intertwined with large arching windows. Stone covered the floor, just like it did everywhere else in the castle, and various beds were scattered throughout the room, some with hangings blocking the contents from view. There was also a bed that was occupied with a man containing a peg leg...

I snarled. "What the hell is _he_ doing here?"

The Weasleys looked at me in surprise, apparently trying to find the source of my vehemence. "Well he's hurt, isn't he?" Bill explained. "So he needs to be in the Hospital Wing."

"Is jail not good enough for him?" I snapped.

"What-"

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed. "No, that's not the man who's been teaching us all year. Avery, that's the real Moody. Apparently, someone has been impersonating him all along. But they wouldn't tell us who. Do you know-"

"No," I said, biting my lip. So I'd never been fighting against the real Moody. Only an impostor. "I don't."

Mrs. Weasley smiled softly "Don't worry, dear. Madam Pomfrey will take good care of you."

"Yeah," Ron contributed. "She really knows what she's doing. We kind of spend a lot of time here, you know."

"Really?" I said with sarcasm. "I never would have guessed."

All of a sudden, the double doors at the end of the room opened, and in marched Harry, Dumbledore, and a big black dog that could only be Sirius from the hall outside. "Harry!" Mrs. Weasley screamed, heading towards the boy.

Dumbledore held up a hand. "Not now, Molly. The boy needs rest. He's been through quite an ordeal tonight. There will be plenty of time for questions later."

Mrs. Weasley nodded slowly, backing away from Harry. The boy scanned the room, and his eyes landed on me. "You're okay?" he asked, taking a shaky step towards me. "I mean, they said you were all right, but-"

"I'm fine," I said, waving the thought away with my hand.

"I..." he stuttered. "I'm sorry I wasn't any help back there... I just didn't understand. I couldn't... I couldn't think-"

I shrugged. "No harm done."

"But you could have died-"

"Hey!" I interrupted. "Don't even go there. The fact is, I didn't. I'm just glad that you're still kicking it."

He grinned, and beside him, Sirius licked his hand. I think my slightly warped sense of humor was doing a lot for his mental health. He opened his mouth, but was quickly interrupted as Madam Pomfrey strode into the room and stole the show.

"Everyone quiet," she demanded. "Or you'll have to leave. These two _both_ need more rest-" She stopped talking at the sight of me. "What are you doing? Lie back down." I rolled my eyes but did as she asked. "Headmaster, why is there a dog in here?"

"This dog shall be staying with Harry until further notice," Dumbledore explained as Ron helped Harry into one of the beds. Pomfrey handed me a vial. "I shall be back after talking with the minister. Excuse me."

Pomfrey handed Harry a vial as well. "Drink it all," she ordered. "It's vital for you both to have a dreamless sleep."

Suddenly, sleep sounded really good to me. So with a flourish, I knocked back the vial as if it was a shot of tequila, and was soon floating away in dream land.

* * *

If it was possible, I woke up even more unceremoniously the second time around. The first thing I became aware of was the shrill sound of arguing voices. The melodies marred my ears, and kept me from falling back asleep. And that was when I began to make out what they were saying.

"You're mad," an unknown male voice declared. "Mad!"

"If you continue to draw a blind eye to the inevitable, and quite obvious, truth, than I am afraid we have reached a parting of the ways." This voice I could immediately recognize as Dumbledore's. "You will do what you believe to be right. And so shall I."

"You can't work against me!"

"I shall only work against Lord Voldemort," Dumbledore preached. "Unless you have joined his side, than I am not, in fact working against you."

A tremor entered into the first man's voice, as he pleaded with the headmaster. "He's not back, Albus. He can't be..."

All right. It was time to open my eyes and see who the dumbass was that decided to ignore all the evidence. He was an older man, his hair graying and his eyes holding a sadness and a fear at the same time. The lines wrinkling his face suggested that perhaps he had a hard life, or at the very least, a hard job.

He stood next to Dumbledore, McGonagall holding her ground firmly by the headmaster's side. Mrs. Weasley hovered in the background, as Bill, Ron, and Hermione stood by a now-awakened Harry, Sirius curled up on the bed by his side. Someone else was present as well. Snape strode forward, pulling up his left sleeve as he faced Fudge. "The Dark Mark burned black an hour ago. It's still clear. He's back. That's why Karkaroff fled tonight. He knew the Death Eaters would kill him for his betrayal."

The older man shook his head, stepping away from Snape. "You're wrong Snape... Dumbledore," he said stiffly. "You're wrong." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pouch before dropping it awkwardly on Harry's bed. "Your winnings."

And then he was gone.

I snorted, causing most of those back in the room to jump. "Dumbass," I said as I sat up. I felt a lot stronger than I had earlier. Maybe this second nap thing was beneficial.

"Yeah, well," Harry said darkly. "That dumbass is the minister."

I closed my eyes, hoping that the man in charge wasn't so stupid... "Please tell me you're talking about a church."

But Harry just shook his head. "I wish."

Dumbledore rounded on Mrs. Weasley. "Molly, you and Arthur will help?"

She nodded gravely. "Of course."

"Then he must be contacted. He needs to start persuading others."

"I'll get Dad," Bill said, stepping closer to Dumbledore. "I can be discrete. Fudge won't notice." Dumbledore nodded to him, and Bill grabbed his cloak before turning hesitantly to me. "Hopefully I'll see you soon," he said, offering me a half smile.

I smirked. "Hopefully I'll be out of this bed soon." He kissed Mrs. Weasley's cheek, and then he was gone.

Dumbledore then turned to members of his staff. "Poppy, find a house-elf named Winky. She's very anguished at the moment. Please do what you can. Minerva, find Hagrid for me." The two women left, and Dumbledore spoke once more. "And now, peace must be made. Sirius, if you will."

The dog jumped down from Harry's bed, and in an instant, he had resumed his normal form. Mrs. Weasley shrieked. "Oh Merlin!"

"Mum, it's all right," Ron soothed.

Snape just stared at Dumbledore, fury filling his features. "Why is he here?"

I blinked in surprise as Snape clenched his fist tightly, so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The only person Snape had ever shown this much hatred for was Harry. Well, and sometimes me, but only when I really pissed him off. And from the way Sirius' eyes narrowed in disgust, I'd say he wasn't too fond of the potions master himself.

"You will be working together," Dumbledore said firmly. "Therefore you will be civil. You need to put old differences aside. And you will do it now." Snape's lip curled as he reached out, grabbing tightly to Sirius' hand (the latter glaring in anger) before quickly letting go. "That will do for now," Dumbledore conceded. "But you will do well to remember that you are on the same side. Sirius." The animagus looked at Dumbledore in question. "You will find Remus. Alert him of what happened, and tell him to find the old crowd."

"But-" Harry protested.

"I have to, Harry," Sirius said gently. "I will see you soon." He then turned to me. "Thank you," he said slowly. "Harry told us what happened. You saved his life. I'm grateful." I nodded and he bonded out of the room, transforming back into his dark form along the way. Snape rolled his eyes.

"Severus," Dumbledore said gravely. "Are you ready?"

"I am."

"Good luck," the old man said softly as Snape left quickly, following after Sirius, leaving us with no clue as to what he was ready for.

Dumbledore faced Harry and myself once more. "You two should get some more sleep. Harry, finish your potion. I shall be back later." He swept from the room, his cloak swishing against the ground.

"Sleep, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said, wiping her hand across the boys' brow as I reached for a second vial of the potion that Pomfrey had left besides my bed. "Think about something else. Like what you're going to spend all of this gold on."

"I don't want it," Harry said stubbornly as I knocked back the second potion. "It shouldn't be mine. It should be Cedric's."

"Harry-"

I don't know what happened next, as I was already drifting off to sleep, Hermione slamming something down on the windowsill being the last thing I saw before I was out cold.

* * *

Woohoo! Only the epilogue left! Of course, then I have to start on the sequel... but I have about the first half really detail-planned out. The rest of it more or less outlined, but the details are still a little foggy. Any who, I hope you enjoyed this!

A special thank you to my two reviewers from last chapter: XoXMaximumculleNXoX , and brilliantblonde. Thank you guys so much!

So please do me a favor and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... And I Love it!

Lurve forever,

-Selene


	19. Epilogue

With days left until the end of the year, everyone was attempting to tie up loose ends. Harry spent a lot of time visiting Hagrid, using the half-giant as a way to avoid the masses and all of their questions about Diggory's death. He was slowly starting to come back to himself, but every now and then I would catch him looking off into space, a sadness entering his eyes. I tried to be there for him, to let him know that I understood, but he had become very good at shutting us all out, and it was slightly worrisome.

Dumbledore gave a heartfelt speech lamenting Diggory's death and he used this lecture to broadcast the news of Voldemort's return. While most of the students had kind of already heard the news, it was still shocking to have what were some people's worst fears confirmed.

The real Mad-Eye Moody was finally able to sit at the staff table and eat meals with us. I don't know how nobody ever realized that Crouch Jr. was impersonating him; the real Moody was a heck of a lot more paranoid.

Then again, if _I'd_ just been locked in a trunk for nine months...

The days passed almost too quickly, and it wasn't long before the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were headed home. We met them in the courtyard before they left, Harry and Ron occupied by Fleur as Hermione said her final good-byes to Viktor.

"Avery. May I have a vord?"

I smiled to myself before turning, facing Alejandros for what I felt would be the last time in years. "Hey," I said softly, taking in the sight of his windswept light brown hair. "You look a lot better than the last time I saw you."

"Yes, vell. Now that I know Viktor is alive..." he trailed off. "He's like my brother, you know. I couldn't stand it if he died."

I nodded, a faint smile crossing my lips. "I understand."

He shook his head, an amazed look gracing his eyes. "You have influenced me so much, Avery. Before I met you, I thought I vas stuck. After school, I vas going to join the ministry," he monologued, speaking of one of our earlier encounters. "But now, after hearing your advice... After Diggory's death... I shall teach. Life is too short. If you aren't honest... If you don't open up, than vhere vill you be?"

And he was right. For the first half of my year at Hogwarts, I had been stuck. I was moody and overly cautious because I was afraid of being hurt and misled again like when Tyler had lied to me about being a wizard. It took me so long to get over my fears, to grow up and break down my walls...

He leaned closer to me, kissing me gently, chastely on the lips. He pulled back smiling. "If you ever need anything, please ask. You have done so much for me. I owe you."

I drew him back to me for a hug. "We'll see each other again," I said with absolute certainty, a feeling of rightness coming over me as I spoke what I knew to be the truth. I pulled back. "And when we do, you can pay me back by buying me dinner."

* * *

On the day of the student's departure from Hogwarts, I walked down with the rest of the school to the train station. There would be no train ride back home for me, seeing as I loved across the ocean. It was a melancholy feeling to know that my peers, my friends would all be out of reach for the summer. I knew that I would be back next year, but I couldn't for the life of me want to wait that long.

The twins were still peeved at me for keeping the prophecy a secret from them, but I think they were beginning to get over it. "All this time," Fred said, shaking his head as he was about to board the train. "All this time you knew something so important and you didn't tell us!"

But I just shrugged. "To quote you: 'You can't trust anyone at this school. Not anyone except for us and Dumbledore.'"

"Yeah," George butt-in. "Us! As in, tell us your deepest, darkest secrets!"

Nevertheless, they still gave me a hug before boarding the train.

Ginny grinned up at me. "You're coming to visit over the summer," she demanded before drawing me into a hug. "I've already decided."

"Do I get any say?" I joked, helping her lift her trunk. And then she too was gone.

I was left with the three amigos. Silence permeated the air, nobody willing to break the comfortable feeling of friendship to offer their good-bye. Finally, Hermione spoke. "You will be safe, won't you? I mean, you _are_ known to do reckless things."

"I'll be home," I assured her. "If I get attacked, it'll be on my turf. And they won't get me. I'll see them coming."

Ron shook his head nonetheless. "I agree with Ginny, mate. You have to come and visit us at the Burrow over summer. Maybe... Maybe halfway through or something."

"Thanks."

At last, Harry spoke. "You saved me, you know," he confessed, his own voice near-silent next to the roar of his peers. "I don't know what I would have done that night... It was you who rescued me."

Hermione broke down, a sob escaping her throat as she threw her arms around Harry and me at once. "You two both have to be careful this summer," she whispered, her eyes dry even though her voice wavered. "Please. For me."

"What, do I not matter anymore?" Ron asked.

I shrugged, before grabbing ahold of his arm and yanking him into our group hug. "We'll be fine," I said, though I knew no such thing for sure. Even though I felt as if we would be safe for now, the future was always changing... "And we'll see each other again really soon."

* * *

The castle was a ghost town with the absence of students (literally), and as I made my way to the headmaster's office for my floo home, I couldn't help the chill that ran down my spin at the silence that echoed around me. I couldn't wait to return home, to the warmth and brightness of my house, my family. My goofy but strong father whom I'd only seen sporadically over the past year. My space-cadet of a mother who wrote long-winded letters to me every other day. My little sister, Candi, and her love for electronics...

It was with a bounce in my step that I walked into the office, knowing that while I was leaving my newfound friends, I was returning to the place I had grown up in, to those that would always be there for me.

Dumbledore was standing by the fireplace when I entered, a slightly bedraggled looking Severus Snape by his side. Dumbledore smiled. "I trust that you are an expert at anything floo by now."

I smirked, grabbing hold of my trunk besides the fireplace in one hand as I threw my bag over my shoulder. "Why of course, Professor." While I may have been talking to Dumbledore, both my eyes and my mind were on Snape. Whatever mission Dumbledore had sent him on, he had come back alive. And as much of a pain in the ass as he was to me, I had to admit that I was glad. "Professor Snape," I said suddenly, drawing the attention of the surly potions master. "I wanted to thank you. Ron told me you were the one that took me to the hospital wing... I really appreciate it."

He just rolled his eyes. "Somebody had to do it, Miss Nouvelli."

I grabbed a pinch of floo powder, throwing it into the fire before speaking. "Don't take the gratitude as sentimentality, Snape," I said with a semi-cocky grin. "I still hate you." I faced the fire, stepping in as I yelled, "The Bauer house!"

I dragged my trunk in after me, knowing that I was headed to my ex's domain. As I was whisked away, I heard Dumbledore call out to me, "I shall be in touch, Miss Nouvelli!"

* * *

Coughing slightly, I stepped out of the fireplace. "Man," I quipped. "You people need to hire a chimney sweep. Either that, or you should fire Mary Poppins' friend Bert, because he's not doing a very good job."

My mother squealed in delight, running up to throw her arms around me. "Welcome home, sweetheart!"

"Oh, so have I moved in with Tyler, then?" I joked.

My mother pulled back, her eyes filled with tears as she looked down at me. "Your father is in the kitchen with Candi. Mr. and Mrs. Bauer are helping them make you a lemon meringue pie! I know it's your favorite; come on."

She started for the kitchen, but I hesitated a second, dropping my bag on the floor before turning to the man skulking in the corner. "Hey Ty," I said softly. "So... It looks like we have a lot to talk about."

And by the way he was solemnly nodding his head, I knew that he had heard about Voldemort's return. "We do."

"Avery! Come on, honey," my mother yelled, poking her head out of the kitchen doorway. "The pie's ready!"

A genuine smile graced my lips, and I couldn't help but laugh. A mad dictator was on the loose, I was once again single, and one of my best friends could possibly die at the hands of guys in a creepy black robes and halloween masks.

There had never seemed like a better time for pie.

* * *

Yay, it's done! The sequel shall be up in about a week, as should a Lily/James oneshot. Bored? In need of something to read? Check out my Severus/Hermione oneshot Fireflies or my Sirius oneshot Through the Veil, a slightly humorous take of his angsty death.

A special thank you to my reviewers from last chapter: hiphophottie, xxbabyxox, SweetieCherrie, Blank Paige, and brilliantblonde. Thank you guys so much! And big thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story! You guys rock!

**Update**

_Hey everyone, guess what? The sequel is now out! Yep, it's entitled Trouble, and it's posted right now! Granted, the Prologue is the only thing up right now, but I'm still working on the first chapter, and I didn't want you all to think I'd abandoned you. So I went ahead and just posted it. The first chapter should be up sometime next week._

_Since this whole post is a giant advertisement, I've decided that I might as well pimp some of my other stories... oneshots to be exact. Like my Lily/James oneshot Mousetrap, my Sirius story Through the Veil, and my Hermione/Severus tale Fireflies._

_Sorry, the self-pimpage is now over._

_So head on over to Trouble and RER: Read it, Enjoy it, Review it... And I Love it! Really, I do._

_Lurve,_

_-Selene_


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